ALBANY, N.Y. July 5, 2017 — New York State United Teachers today took sharp aim at regulations proposed by the charter school industry that would allow some charter networks to bypass state certification standards and set up their own training programs for teachers — meaning students in publicly funded charters could be taught by individuals with as little as 30 hours of classroom instruction.
“What the charter industry is essentially saying is, ‘Give me a few weeks and I’ll authorize almost anyone we want to be a teacher.’ This backdoor approach fails students and would be a grave disservice to aspiring charter teachers. It is a travesty,” said NYSUT President Andy Pallotta.
Pallotta added, “New York has high standards for earning teacher certification — and for good reason: Students deserve to learn from well-prepared teachers held to clear, consistent and transparent academic and professional standards.”
The regulations, proposed to create a backdoor to certification for some SUNY-authorized charter schools, emerged quietly in the final hours of the legislative session and are expected to come before the SUNY Charter School Committee on Thursday.
New York State United Teachers is a statewide union with more than 600,000 members in education, human services and health care. NYSUT is affiliated with the American Federation of Teachers, the National Education Association and the AFL-CIO.