On Wednesday, Nov. 18, the Sparke PTA hosted Assemblyman Marc Herbst at their monthly meeting. They brought Herbst in as part of a plan to bring in guest speakers to attract new members. Herbst was invited to the meeting to discuss the new Regents standards and how it would affect students in Island Trees.

Herbst began by explaining how the Board of Regents and the commissioner of education are chosen. He explained that a joint session is called once a year for the Assembly and Senate, who appoint the 16 Regents, each for a five year term. This was designed to keep the politics out of education. Herbst went on to say, "Realistically that has put politics in charge of who serves our region because of the parties' make-up." The Regents then elect a commissioner of education. This is different from how commissioners in all other departments are chosen.

The current commissioner, who has been in New York for two to three years, is Richard Mills, who previously served as commissioner in Vermont and New Jersey. According to Herbst, Mills came in and wanted to start his own policies and procedures. The mark that Mills has decided to make is in raising standards and have everyone graduate with a Regents diploma.

These new standards have caused a concern throughout the state because many people fear that there are students who will not be able to meet these new standards and will then fall through the cracks.

Herbst said that Island Trees is a good district, as are Jericho, Seaford, Wantagh, and most of the other schools in his district and even those schools are concerned about these new standards and fear that their students won't be able pass the new standards. He asked, "If they can't pass, what are we going to do with school districts like Roosevelt and the ones in New York City?" He added that everyone is in favor of raising standards but if they are raised too high nobody benefits and many suffer. He added that as a public official he is not opposed to the raising of standards but if it happens too fast, without enough considerations of other factors then it does not help the students.

Part of the problem with these new standards, according to Herbst, is that there is no funding given to districts by the Board of Regents for the implementation of these standards. Because the Board of Regents is a policy board they do not have anything to do with the funding of these standards so the burden then falls to the schools, who then look to the Legislature for help.

One of the ideas being discussed with the new standards is the raising of standards for teachers and preparing them better for the new tests. Many teachers may have to go for additional training as the new standards progress. In discussing how the speed of the implementation of these standards are affecting teachers and schools, Herbst said, "You had a certain educational training and all of a sudden overnight you have to do that much better. That is a tough task for the teachers in the education process." He then asked, "How do you fix that? Remediation? Intensive study? Parent participation? How do you do that?" These are the questions that districts across the state are asking.

Although the Legislature knows that increasing standards is important they, along with the school districts do not necessarily agree with the methods. The new standards require quite a bit of funding for teacher training as well as for extra help for students who are in danger of not passing the new standards. The problem with these financial burdens are that in order to get the budget increase for the schools either the districts themselves have to increase their taxes or the state has to get the money from somewhere else, thereby cutting funding to that program. This has become a no-win situation for the districts as well as for the Legislature.

Island Trees is severely affected by these additional costs because they have worked so hard to keep their costs down and have not gotten as much funding from the state as they might like. Herbst praised the district saying, "My experience with Island Trees is they are fiscally conservative. I think that you have probably one of the most cohesive, responsible boards of education...This district is very well run, in comparison to many others because they are very fiscally conservative. They look at the bottom line and how things are spent." Because of the way the money is doled out in Albany, Island Trees has often suffered because of the budget process. The new standards put an added strain on the district.

Following his explanation of the Regents Board and the education department Herbst answered questions from members of the PTA. Several people had questions about the STAR program and how that would affect the money to the district and if the program would last, to which Herbst replied that he would not want to be in the Legislature when it tried to get rid of a program that cut taxes. He said it is very hard for a program of this sort to be disbanded because people do not want to get rid of anything that cuts taxes but that in the long run it may hurt the school districts. Another person asked what sort of influence the PTAs have and Herbst responded that they are one of the most powerful lobbying units and that they are very influential. He said it is always helpful to know your elected officials personally and because the PTAs are so active they usually do, which helps them be heard. Others questioned how the teachers would be affected by the new standards and Herbst went back to his earlier statements about teacher training programs. Other, unanswerable questions included, "What will keep the students from dropping out if the standards are too high?" and "What are the students expected to be better than?" Another woman wanted to know what would happen if Mills left or if they decided a few years down the road that these new standards aren't working. She questioned the fact that the kids who are being phased into these new standards are basically just test cases who will be lost in the shuffle. Another woman believed that everyone was underestimating the students and their ability to pass under the new standards.

Herbst concluded the discussion saying, "You are parents who care about your kids, you are active, you are helping them. No matter what standard, no matter what you put in place, your kids will have no problems. They are going to do well because you are there helping them and you care about them. It's everyone else, no matter what you do to the standards you are not going to get them to help their kids. They are not going to do as well." He added, "As an overall community we're the ones who are doing it and I can guarantee, no matter what the standards are, they can raise it through the roof, your kids are going to make it because of you."