Today's Buffalo News editorial (here) strongly embraces legislation introduced by area Assemblyman Sam Hoyt to reform public education and strengthen New York's competitiveness for obtaining federal Race to the Top funds.

The editorial acknowledges that the bill needs more sponsors to have any hope for enactment and praises Hoyt for his "worthwhile effort" that "deserve[s] serious debate."

The Hoyt bill includes provisions to remove the cap on charters, immediately repeal the ban on using student data for tenure decisions, extend the school year to 200 days and many other reform measures.

This bill provides exactly the menu of reforms which the state's leadership, beginning with Governor Paterson and Education Commissioner Steiner, should consider advancing.

So far, the Governor is not interested "at this time," as his spokesperson said yesterday; and Steiner's tenure as Commissioner is not yet a month old. Assemblyman Hoyt has begun the important discussion to reform state education policy which will continue in the months ahead. It will take leadership from high-ranking officials to make any of it reality. Stay tuned.

Peter Murphy
for The Chalkboard