Assemblyman Kevin Byrne held a press conference last month to call on the NYS Department of Education (NYSED) to scrap any effort to tie state financial assistance for school districts to the firmly recommended, but highly controversial
“Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Framework and Policy Statement.”
Last week, Assemblymembers Kevin Byrne and Colin Schmitt joined with their colleague, ranking member of the NYS Assembly Education Committee, Doug Smith, in writing a letter to NYSED Commissioner Dr. Betty A. Rosa stressing the importance of respecting local control and their opposition to heavy handed state mandates or incentives tied to the implementation of DEI. Several specific concerns with the DEI policy were cited in the letter sent to Commissioner Rosa.
Last week in their list of Budget and Legislative Priorities for the 2022-23 School Year, the NYS Board of Regents included a new one million dollar funding request to subsidize schools who adopt Diversity, Equity and Inclusion initiatives and the Culturally Responsive-Sustaining framework.
“We should trust in our families, respect parents, and honor local control. Our educators should continue to teach history, the good and the bad, but not rewrite it,” said Assemblyman Kevin Byrne. “We firmly reject any attempt to tie
state funding of schools to the implementation of DEI or CRS in our schools. Our elected school board members and local officials often talk about the costly mandates forced on them from Albany, and with good reason because they come at a price. If you tie highly controversial and divisive policy to state aid, it will be perceived by many as a new mandate. We ask the rest of our state elected leaders to honor local control and respect parents who seek to advocate for their children at a local level.”
Although he was unable to attend in person, Assemblyman Colin Schmitt provided the following statement, “The State Education Department is attempting to use the state budget process to trample local control of our schools and implement CRT and its underlying principles. This is wrong, and it once again demonstrates the Albany bureaucrats’ disrespect for parents and elected school boards. Our children deserve a high-quality education that prepares them for college and to compete in a global economy. That’s the State Education Department’s sole responsibility. There is no place for CRT and other aspects of this partisan political agenda in our classrooms.”
“With the cute way incentives are done with state aid, the state will dictate what goes on in our local school curricula,” said Frank Del Campo, former Putnam Deputy County Executive and school administrator. “From my experience in
school administration, the best sources in writing curricula are the actual school administrators, teachers and stakeholders within your own school district, and not bureaucrats in Albany.”
“As a parent, I feel compelled to educate myself on what is happening in our schools and engage other parents and community members to encourage them to get involved,” said Sarah Hanganu, Chair of Dutchess County Moms for Liberty. “We are here to ask Commissioner Rosa to not tie conditional funding to the implementation of these divisive educational frameworks.”
“Since the start of January of this year, Moms for Liberty has grown to over 160 chapters across 33 states with more than 70,000 members,” said Abby O’Brien, Vice-Chair of Putnam County Moms for Liberty. “I’m here today on
behalf of all New York chapters of Moms for Liberty to oppose the tying of state funds to DEI in our schools.”
While unable to attend in person, John Curzio, member of the Carmel Central School District Board of Education, did provide a personal statement on his own behalf stating, “The statement I am making today are my personal comments and I am not speaking on behalf of the board or any other board member… The idea that Albany would tie critical school funding to the implementation of the controversial, and so called ‘Diversity, Equity and Inclusion framework’ is absurd. This framework seeks to divide us at a critical time when we need to unite as a community, as a state, and as a nation. We should not be planting the idea amongst our children that they are defined by their race, which this framework endorses.”
Assemblyman Byrne is also a canddiate for Putnam County Executive. He represents parts of northern Westchester, Putnam County and parts of Dutchess county that make up the 94th Assembly District.
The debate over DEI learning continues in northern Westchester, with the recent departure of Lakeland Schools Superintendent Dr. Brendan Lyons in Sept. 2021 said to be over disagreements between the Lakeland School Board and Lyons over DEI education.
Both former Superintendent Lyons and Yorktown Superintendent Dr. Ronald Hattar stated at their respective school board meetings last year that their curriculm do not include the controversial term Critical Race Theory, CRT.
A group called Save our Schools, (SOS), for Westchester Children, said after Lyons resignation, “Today’s announcement must be a wake up call for school administrators across Westchester, namely, that parents will not stand by as their children are taught to hate america and hate one another by viewing their fellow students as oppressors or oppressed.”
Another group in support of DEI education and standing opposed to SOS is Yorktown for Justice. The two have squared off at Yorktown School Board meetings last year. DEI “framework encourages and guides schools to create a welcoming environment for all students; to teach children age-appropriate, accurate history; to connect students across cultural differences and through similarities; and to promote critical thinking skills so students can be informed and compassionate American and global citizens who respect and explore a diversity of ideas from a variety of vantage points. ..Diversity, equity and inclusion efforts and the NYSED CR-S framework are not an embodiment of critical race theory. Critical race theory is a body of scholarly work that examines the racial dimensions of American law and other institutions in society. Critical race theory does not appear in K-12 curriculums and is not being proposed. Creating welcoming classrooms and critical thinkers is not “indoctrinating” students with “critical race theory”– it is teaching our children well,” wrote Yorktown for Justice in a letter signed by elected officials and parents.
Editor’s Note: The NYS Department of Education, sent this email to be included with this story: “The Department is in no way tying State Aid to a diversity, equity, and inclusion mandate and, to clarify, no such mandate exists. Conversely, the Board of Regents is advocating for additional resources to support schools as they work toward creating positive, welcoming, and engaging learning environments for all students.”
