But hard work alone is not enough. The Regents' efforts to build consensus within the education community on how to most effectively raise standards has met some difficulty over some important issues. Curriculum requirements, local control, a reasonable timetable, and the question of how to help those who will have the most difficulty making it over the standards bar remain strong concerns. In fact, the ECB estimates 57 million dollars in new funding will be needed for additional instruction time and new class sections to assure students achieve an acceptable passing percentage on the Math Regents test. Estimates run as high as 300 million dollars to provide remediation time for English students and to upgrade laboratories to help students pass the Science Regents Exam.
Legislators can learn a valuable lesson from the results of the recent fourth grade exams.
The results clearly indicated students in districts able to afford small class sizes, modern textbooks and quality libraries scored better on the tests than those in poorer districts. Schools with quality resources help students attain higher academic achievement. Meeting the funding challenges demanded to make all schools the best they can be will take a strong commitment from the governor and legislature. Together they will continue to drain millions of dollars from school districts. We all know some basic truths about what works best to build quality schools for improving student learning.