Skoufis and educators join in call to repeal appr to let teachers teach

GOSHEN — Assemblyman and State Senate candidate James Skoufis (D-Woodbury) joined local education leaders on Monday to call for legislation that would decouple teacher evaluations from standardized state test scores.
The legislation has passed the Assembly where Skoufis was a co-sponsor. Despite bipartisan support in the State Senate, the repeal bill has been blocked by the majority leadership in an effort to get more benefits for charter schools.
“Our educators should be allowed to focus on giving each individual child the best learning experience possible without being beholden to standardized tests," Skoufis said in the press release detailing the effort. "I co-sponsored this legislation in the Assembly and, as State Senator, will work to stop their political games and do the right thing so that this gets done and our teachers will be allowed to actually teach.”
Laura Beck, president of the Orange Ulster BOCES Teachers’ Association, said: “We were very clear while negotiating with legislators in Albany this session that we wanted a long-lasting fix to our broken APPR system. Unfortunately the current Senate majority failed to act even though 55 of the 63 Senators co-sponsored the legislation we supported. James Skoufis will be a new voice in the Senate who will fight to ensure that APPR is finally fixed.”
Rich Steger, NYSUT political action coordinator, added: “NYSUT has endorsed James Skoufis because he will be a fierce advocate for public education and will vote to pass a clean APPR bill unlike the current Senate majority. He will fight to remove state testing results from the equation giving local control back to our communities to decide what fits best in their district.”
Skoufis broke with his party to oppose the original APPR legislation in 2015 and has vowed to fight for its repeal when he gets to the State Senate.