Medford, NY - January 11, 2016 - Assemblyman Dean Murray (R,C,I-East Patchogue) participated in a press conference today highlighting the Next Step in education needs of children in New York State. “We cannot continue to jeopardize our children’s education. Restoring funding to our schools and eliminating the culture of excessive testing needs to be a top priority,” said Murray. “State assessments should not be the only method for gauging educational performance. Our school districts, teachers and students have suffered under Common Core for far too long.” The Assembly Minority Conference is advocating for the following education reform measures:

• Eliminate the Gap Elimination Adjustment (GEA) and delineate a definitive plan for the full phase-in of Foundation Aid;
• Repeal the current teacher evaluation system and empower the Board of Regents to establish, with requisite input from education experts, school administrators, parents and teachers, a teacher evaluation system to be implemented statewide;
• Create new state learning standards with the help and guidance of teachers, school administrators, parents, and education experts;
• Ensure all state assessments are age/developmentally appropriate and of the highest quality;
• Increase the transparency of the state’s testing program and protect teachers and students from the negative effects of state assessments until major reforms are made; and
• Provide increased flexibility for our students by providing them with multiple pathways to success and our local school districts by giving them the freedom and resources to develop curriculum locally.

In an effort to address the many problems with the curriculum, Gov. Cuomo created a Common Core task force which released a report in December that included recommendations on how to address the broken education system. Many of these recommendations mimicked the Assembly Minority Conference’s APPLE plan.