Byrne Seeks to Reject State Funding Ties to DEI Policies
By Rick Pezzullo
State Assemblyman Kevin Byrne (R, C/Mahopac) held a press conference last week to call on the state Department of Education to scrap any effort to tie financial assistance for school districts to the controversial “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Framework and Policy Statement.”
Last week, Byrne and Assemblyman Colin Schmitt joined with their colleague, ranking member of the Assembly Education Committee, Doug Smith, in writing a letter to Education Department Commissioner Dr. Betty A. Rosa stressing the importance of respecting local control and their opposition to state mandates or incentives tied to the implementation of DEI.
In the list of Budget and Legislative Priorities for the 2022-23 School Year, the Board of Regents included a new $1 million funding request to subsidize schools that 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,” Byrne said. “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.”
“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,” Schmitt stated.
Representatives of Moms for Liberty, which has more than 160 chapters in 33 states with more than 70,000 members, were on hand backing the cause, while John Curzio, a Carmel Board of Education trustee, also submitted a statement in support.
“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,” Curzio stated, noting he was not speaking for the entire board. “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.”
State Sen. Shelley Mayer (D-Yonkers), who chairs the Senate’s Education Committee, dismissed Byrne’s fears of there being a tie-in between implementing Diversity, Equity and Inclusion efforts and a district’s Foundation Aid.
Mayer said Rosa sent out her letter encouraging all districts throughout the state to integrate aspects of DEI into their curriculum but there is no threat of losing aid.
“I, with all due respect, have no understanding of what he is concerned about or is pushing back against,” Mayer said. “Yes, it’s expected that every district will engage in this activity. That is what the commissioner of education said, but the obligation to pay foundation aid is not contingent or related to DEI.”
Mayer acknowledged that her committee has received 35 to 40 bills dealing with curriculum, including some that go far beyond the current DEI recommendations. However, she said Byrne and others are looking to politicize the issue while she is supportive of the commissioner’s “very thoughtful” guidelines.
“School districts throughout the state, regardless of where they’re located, will benefit by these principles being included in the context of their school and school community,” Mayer said.
Rick has more than 40 years’ experience covering local news in Westchester and Putnam counties, running the gamut from politics and crime to sports and human interest. He has been an editor at Examiner Media since 2012. Read more from Rick’s editor-author bio here. Read Rick’s work here: https://www.theexaminernews.com/author/pezzullo_rick-writer/
