A statement from Governor Paterson on New York being awarded Race to the Top funding.

““I am proud to announce that today New York State has been awarded $696,646,000 in Race to the Top Round II stimulus education funding. During these difficult economic times, this funding will go a long way to ensure that our State’s children are given greater opportunity and access to a quality education. This new funding will help provide the foundation for academic success and the emergence of a new generation of leaders and achievers for New York State.

“This funding would not have been possible without the Legislature approving my proposals to lift the State’s charter school cap, link teacher evaluations to student performance, and provide resources to implement a data system that tracks individual student performance. In addition, the hard work of the State Education Department to ensure our application was the strongest it could be was recognized by this significant award for New York’s schools. Moreover, I know the support of our New York Congressional Delegation was key to our success.

“I would like to thank President Barack Obama for his commitment to our nation’s children, and Education Secretary Arne Duncan for pushing the President’s strategy forward and for recognizing that New York State is worthy of these important dollars. These funds will be directly invested in our children’s futures, which I am confident will lead to a bright and prosperous future for New York State.”

Nick Reisman writes on pressconnects.com - “Gov. David Paterson on Friday rejected the Legislature’s compromise proposal on a plan that would grant new powers to New York’s public colleges.

Paterson spokesman Morgan Hook said in a statement that “more needs to be done and more details need to provided” before the governor can sign off on the plan, known as the Higher Education Empowerment and Innovation Act.

The program has become the centerpiece battle in finally completing the 2010-11 state budget, which was due on April 1, the start of the fiscal year.

The Legislature has been wary to sign off the college proposal, which would allow individual colleges to set their own tuition rates, undertake economic-development projects and borrow money. The power to raise tuition currently rests with the state Legislature.”

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Jimmy Vielkind of the Times Union writes about two bills introduced in the State Senate over the weekend that could bring the Senate back by Wednesday. The bills seem to be intended as “negotiating points”.

“It’s unclear when they’ll return to session, but Democrats who control the state Senate introduced two bills designed to be “negotiating points” as they work toward passing the last piece of the state budget.

Senators left the Capitol two weeks ago without passing the final revenue bill — which would reinstate the tax on clothing under $110 and reduce charitable deductions for high-income earners — that passed the Assembly. Several senators in the Democrats’ 32-30 majority have refused to publicly commit to voting for the revenue plan until a deal is worked out authorizing greater flexibility for SUNY and CUNY campuses to raise tuition and enter into public-private partnerships.

Another bill would create a contingency plan in case $1.06 billion in Medicaid assistance expected from the federal government does not materialize.”

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Cara Matthews reports on Pressconnects.com - “Lawmakers continue to negotiate on a legislation that has been controversial enough to hold up budget talks because it would give the State University of New York authority to set tuition without legislative approval and enter into public-private partnerships.

It’s unclear, however, whether the Higher Education Empowerment and Innovation Act for SUNY and the City University of New York would be included in the budget or voted on as a stand-alone bill if an agreement is reached, and how much different it would be than what Gov. David Paterson proposed in January.

“It almost doesn’t matter how it gets done as long as it’s done,” said Senate Higher EducationCommittee Chairwoman Toby Stavisky, D-Queens.”

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Middletown Times Herald-Recordcolumnist Megan Murphy writes that New York must reform its education system rather than continuing pour more money in.

She writes: “Everyone last week seemed to be running around scraping together money to save education jobs. While they scramble, I have to ask: Is pouring money at the same old broken system a solution?

Thursday, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill that included $10 billion for education jobs. To pay for the fund, Congress robbed three stimulus reform initiatives.

During the past few months, local educators have said we need to keep teachers in the classroom. But they’ve also said we need reforms, such as those outlined in President Barack Obama’s Race to the Top program.

Obama wants both, too. But what the House is saying is that we have to prioritize. So what do we choose — today or tomorrow?

The initial education stimulus money plugged a hole in New York’s fiscal dam for almost two years. Albany supplanted state school aid with federal money and did little to address the rising tide of education costs.

Education spending in our state soared between 2003 and 2009. On Sunday, you read that more people are leaving our region than are arriving. So too have enrollments shrunk in 70 percent of mid-Hudson districts. Yet, school spending per pupil in the 24 districts where enrollment fell increased anywhere from 38 to 81 percent during the 2003-2009 period.

Though we might not like the way it happened, fiscal crisis forced substantial change in school budgets.”

Read the column.

Tom Precious of the Buffalo News writes - ” Gov. David A. Paterson wasted little time Monday night vetoing some of the last major spending portions of the budget that had breezed through the State Legislature just hours earlier.

The governor took out his veto stamp, with reporters as his witnesses, to strike out $419 million in education spending he said is politically popular in an election year but unaffordable for the state.

And he said more vetoes are coming — 6,900 of them in line-item fashion.

“Rather than act in the interest of the people of New York State, [legislators] have engaged in legislation that is in self-interest and have presented us with a series of bills that have the same gimmicks, chicanery and avoidance conduct that has characterized fiscal management in this state for far too long,” Paterson said.

The vetoes came as a major push to give more financial autonomy to the State University of New York — an integral part of the University at Buffalo’s expansion plans — appeared all but dead Monday night.”

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The following is part on an editorial from Pressconnects.com.

“Entangled in the final budget negotiations now under way in Albany is a proposed change that can make a good SUNY system even better.

The proposal, part of Gov. David Paterson’s spending plan, would give SUNY university centers and colleges more autonomy over purchases, lease agreements and — most importantly — the tuitions they charge at campuses, such as Binghamton, Cortland and Oneonta.

As it stands now, tuition at SUNY colleges and universities is tethered to the governor’s budget and state Legislature, both of which have the power to control tuition hikes and the amount of tuition money going back to SUNY campuses once it has been filtered through the state’s general coffers.

The Public Higher Education Empowerment and Innovation Act takes a bold step toward severing that dependence and allowing SUNY campuses, with oversight of SUNY’s Board of Trustees, to set tuition rates and even vary them between undergraduate and post-graduate programs. So instead of going years without a tuition hike and then walloping students with double-digit increases, SUNY campuses could build in gradual increases based on the Higher Education Price Index, according to Paterson’s proposal.”

To read more click here.

Tom Precious of the Buffalo News writes - ” It’s make or break time for the state university system and its sweeping plans to untether itself from Albany.

The University at Buffalo was the first to push the initiative, which would change how tuition levels are set, permit individual campuses to keep more of the tuition money and encourage partnerships with private companies.

State budget talks appear to be entering a final phase this coming week, and whether this vision lives or dies hinges on those negotiations.

One thing is certain: The fate of the university plan is in the hands of the Assembly, where downstate and upstate Democrats are fighting each other over a measure that State University of New York officials say is desperately needed to bolster both the reputation and educational offerings of the nation’s largest university system.”

To read more click here.

Jon Campbell reports in the Democrat and Chronicle - “The state Senate passed a bill this week that would require public utility companies, including Rochester Gas and Electric Corp., to pay prevailing wage for cleaners, security guards and other service employees.

Opponents of the measure worry that the added costs might be passed along to consumers, raising their monthly bills.

Lawmakers said the legislation, sponsored by Sen. Eric Schneiderman, D-Manhattan, closes a loophole in state labor law that requires state agencies to pay the standardized rate for service workers but exempts public utilities.”

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Cara Matthews reports on Pressconnects.com - “With the federal Race to the Top application due Tuesday, time is running out for lawmakers and the governor to agree on expanding charter schools and revamping teacher evaluations, changes needed to boost New York’s chances of winning up to $700 million.

Negotiations between the governor and Legislature continued Thursday evening on a bill that would improve New York’s application for Race to the Top money.

It was unclear whether the Assembly would have a bill to vote on Thursday evening. The Senate left for the day without taking up Race to the Top legislation and was scheduled to return Friday morning…

Gov. David Paterson said Thursday on WOR 710 AM in New York City that he would do everything he could to get a deal in time to send in the application. He said there have been “positive negotiations and the Assembly has concerns that we’re trying to address.”

To read more click here.