FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
April 22, 2015

Statement from Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie and Education Committee Chair Catherine Nolan in Support of SED Decision to Extend Evaluation Approval Deadline

As we continue to discuss ways to improve New York’s educational system, everyone agrees that our children must come first in any decisions that are made. It is critically important that the children of New York are not deprived of necessary educational resources because a deadline turns out to be not feasible – in this case a deadline for some districts to fully implement new teacher evaluation plans. Chancellor Tisch’s decision to extend the deadline for the State Education Department (SED) approval of new teacher evaluation plans for districts facing hardships is the right one. It is appropriate for SED to prevent this situation which has the potential to harm our children by denying schools necessary funds. We believe such action is within their lawful discretion to act administratively and we applaud Chancellor Tisch and the Board of Regents for putting the interests of children first.