Provides that the commissioner of education may also withhold from any district or city its share of the public money of the state for willfully disobeying any provision of law, or for such decisions, orders or regulations as aforesaid whose willful violation constitutes an immediate threat to the health, safety, education or welfare of students, employees or visitors at such common school, educational institution, school district or public school.
NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule III, Sec 1(f)
BILL NUMBER: A7729
SPONSOR: Durso TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the education law, in relation to restrictions on
authority for the withholding of public monies from educational insti-
tutions
PURPOSE:
Amends the education law, in relation to restrictions on authority for
the withholding of public monies from educational institutions.
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
Section 1. Section 306 of the education law, subdivision 1 as amended by
chapter 298 of the laws of 1957, is amended to read as follows:
§ 306 Removal of school officers; withholding public money.
Section 2. is the enacting clause.
JUSTIFICATION:
State funding for education is essential to the education and develop-
ment of our youth and the removal of such funding, regardless of the
reason, will invariably harm that developmental process. The ability of
the Commissioner of Education to alter or suspend the specific actions
of the Legislature in allocating such funding to educational insti-
tutions as a punishment or sanction, therefore, must be limited.
Presently, the Commissioner, in addition to the power to remove any
school officer, wields unlimited authority to alter or suspend funds
allocated by the Legislature to educational institutions for any willful
violation of law as well as for any willful violation of a decision,
order or regulation Promulgated by the Commissioner regardless of its
severity or its impact on the health, safety, education or welfare of
students, employees or visitors to that educational institution. Without
limits, this broad power can effectively shut down affected insti-
tutions, potentially impacting the education of thousands of students,
over ministerial disputes with relatively little consequence, where
other less obstructive measures can be utilized.
The proposed legislation places reasonable limits on the exercise of
this draconian authority, restricting its use to willful violations of
law, or to willful disobeyance of decisions, orders or regulations
promulgated by the Commissioner only where such disobeyance presents an
immediate threat to the health, safety, education or welfare of
students, employees or visitors to the involved institution.
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
New bill.
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
None.
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect immediately.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
7729
2023-2024 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
June 6, 2023
___________
Introduced by M. of A. DURSO -- read once and referred to the Committee
on Education
AN ACT to amend the education law, in relation to restrictions on
authority for the withholding of public monies from educational insti-
tutions
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Section 306 of the education law, subdivision 1 as amended
2 by chapter 298 of the laws of 1957, is amended to read as follows:
3 § 306. Removal of school officers; withholding public money. 1. When-
4 ever it shall be proved to his or her satisfaction that any trustee,
5 member of a board of education, clerk, collector, treasurer, district
6 superintendent, superintendent of schools or other school officer is a
7 member of an organization listed as subversive by the board of regents
8 pursuant to the provisions of section three thousand twenty-two of this
9 chapter, or has been guilty of any wilful violation or neglect of duty
10 under this chapter, or any other act pertaining to common schools or
11 other educational institution participating in state funds, or wilfully
12 disobeying any decision, order, rule or regulation of the regents or of
13 the commissioner [of education], [said] such commissioner, after a hear-
14 ing at which the school officer shall have the right of representation
15 by counsel, may, by an order under his or her hand and seal, which order
16 shall be recorded in his or her office, remove such school officer from
17 his or her office.
18 2. [Said] Such commissioner [of education] may also withhold from any
19 district or city its share of the public money of the state for wilfully
20 disobeying any provision of law [or any decision, order or regulation as
21 aforesaid], or for such decisions, orders or regulations as aforesaid
22 whose willful violation constitutes an immediate threat to the health,
23 safety, education or welfare of students, employees or visitors at such
24 common school, educational institution, school district or public
25 school.
26 § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD11149-03-3
