Please help us stop looming budget cuts to schools!

NY Governor Cuomo has signaled that he is preparing to make huge cuts in the education budget for next year and will be successful unless the State Legislature stands in his way.   The deadline on finalizing the state budget is supposed to happen this Tuesday by midnight.

Please send a message to your state legislators now, NOT to cut vital education funding, as the state can raise revenue in a variety of ways:  by increasing taxes on ultra-wealthy individuals, by taxing the carried interest income of hedge funders the same as regular income, and imposing sales taxes on the purchase of yachts and private planes, without hurting our students and schools.

In most districts, schools haven’t even recovered from the 2008 recession in terms of the loss of services and increases in class size — they can’t afford to lose even more ground.  The evidence does not support the claim that this will cause millionaires and billionaires to move out of state.

 Just click here to send a message; feel free to revise it any way you like by adding your own thoughts.

Schools and coronavirus: listen to the experts

Today, Governor Cuomo held a press conference where he announced that all gatherings with more than 500 people in the state would be banned from now on, and any gathering under 500 would have to cut their legal occupancy level in half, in order to slow the spread of the coronavirus.

Yet schools and public transit will be exempt from these directives.

When asked why schools are exempted, Cuomo’s Secretary Melissa De Rosa responded that there’s no reason to close schools that have classes of forty students at most.  Yet with class sizes as large as they are, and classrooms as small as in most city schools, the person-to-person density is so extreme that the recommendation of “social distancing” of staying six feet apart will be impossible. See the photos above.

Today, the Archdiocese of NY announced it would be closing all its elementary schools (which include Manhattan, Bronx and Staten Island, but not Brooklyn and Queens.)  The Governor of Ohio ordered all schools in the state--public, private, charter--closed for at least three weeks, starting next week, even though only five people in the entire state have tested positive for coronavirus, compared to 328 confirmed cases in New York state, and 98 infected in NYC.  The governors of Maryland, Kentucky and New Mexico have followed suit, with only 13 and 8 and 5 confirmed cases respectively.

When Gov. DeWine of Ohio was asked about the possibility kids would miss the state testing, he said,  “If we can’t have testing this year, we will not have testing this year. The world will not come to an end.”  The US Department of Education also issued guidance tonight that waivers from mandated state testing would be considered for those districts where schools were closed due to the epidemic. 

Yet both Cuomo and De Blasio seem adamant that they won’t close the public school system – and even at schools where students or staff have tested positive, they would close those individual schools for only a day, and then consider whether to extend that period.  See this article, about two schools sharing a building in the South Bronx which were closed for one day after the report of an infected student, which de Blasio called a “pinpoint” approach.  The DOE has even apparently refused to close a school in Park Slope, even temporarily,  where a parent tested positive after having gathered with other parents and school staff a week ago at an open school night before knowing he was infected.

At his press conference today, the Mayor said “We will fight tooth and nail to protect our schools – its where children are safe” and it allows parents to go to work.  Yet does keeping schools open really “protect” them, or keep children and their families safe?   

A reporter asked what parents who have medically fragile conditions keep their children at a distance.  The Commission of the NYC Health Department Oxiris Barbot said no, they should keep them close especially at this stressful time, until they are showing symptoms .  But this  ignores what is generally understood  by most medical experts, which is that children may be asymptomatic themselves and still be infected and thus extremely effective vectors for further contagion.

Today, a list of 36 eminent virologists sent a letter to the Mayor, urging him to immediately close the schools.

Some of our elected leaders agree.  See this proposal  from the NYC Council Education chair Mark Treyger, which he calls a “temporary contingency plan.”  He suggests that most schools should be closed except for a few in each borough which would be supplied with grab and go meals, medical services, and provide space for those students whose parents do not have any child care alternatives.

Council Members Brad Lander and Richie Torres released a similar comprehensive plan today, devised by doctors and public health officials, calling for city to immediately close schools, among other steps, to stem the contagion:

Suspend classes at public schools, while keeping schools open for emergency childcare for essential workers and vulnerable families. Keep childcare groups small, under 10 kids per group. Close schools immediately and reopen some as centers of family support and mitigation.  

For states or districts where schools are closed for extended periods, Doug Harris suggests that the school year could be extended for six weeks over the summer, funded with federal stimulus dollars.

Like Doug Harris, I am extremely skeptical of the efficacy of online learning in general and its privacy implications are seriously problematic, even if most NYC students had sufficient devices and broadband to go online, which they don’t.  Not only does the research show that online learning doesn’t work, it works worst for those students who need the help most, and thus exacerbates the achievement gap.  In this way, it is the opposite of small classes, which narrow the gap.

If the schools do end up closing here or elsewhere,  I believe it would be far better for students to be assigned math workbooks  or packets and independent reading rather than asking them to go online. I highly recommend the Singapore math workbooks which are excellent and relatively inexpensive. 

All in all, I would listen to the medical experts, the virologists and epidemiologists. NYC should be following precautionary principle, described this way by Wikipedia: “There is a social responsibility to protect the public from exposure to such harm, when scientific investigation has found a plausible risk. These protections should be relaxed only if further scientific findings emerge that provide sound evidence that no harm will result.” In other words, better safe than sorry.

The letter from virologists follows. 

High levels of lead dust found in city schools via an independent WNYC investigation

photo: WNYC/Gothamist

Yesterday Christopher Werth of WNYC radio posted a story online at Gothamist and broadcast on WNYC about an investigation he undertook in four NYC schools in which he found high levels of lead dust on the floor and windowsills from peeling paint. WNYC had emailed the principals and PTAs at over 30 public elementary schools built before 1960 — the year lead-paint was banned in New York City --  and gained entrance to only these four.

Werth took samples in preK to second grade classrooms and in common areas shared by students age six and below -- who are at the greatest risk of lead poisoning. In each of these schools,  there were serious violations that exceeded limits adopted by the City Council for floors -- currently at 10 micrograms per square foot, to be lowered to five micrograms by 2021.  Some samples contained lead 1000 times above this limit.

The reality is there is NO safe amount of lead in the blood; and the lowest levels that can be detected have significant negative impacts on a child's cognitive abilities and behavior.

Similarly, a recent audit by the NY State Comptroller  found preK classrooms in CBOs and in public schools with "potential fire and safety hazards,  toxic cleaning supplies" - and in at least one case, peeling lead paint.

DOE has a poor history when it comes to testing for lead.  For years, district officials insisted on using a discredited method to test in school water, by flushing the water first -- even when this method violated EPA guidance and by 2016, a new state law.

As Dr. Morri Markowitz, lead expert at Montefiore hospital, says in the Gothamist article, “Do I trust the New York City Department of Education to conduct a fair, objective study in their schools? I would say that this is not an agency that has a long-term record of credibility on this particular issue.”

To make things worse, the city's most rigorous public health laws that regulate lead do not apply to DOE schools, as Werth explains:

"Since 1997, for example, child care programs — which also enroll 3K- and pre-K-aged children — have not been permitted to have “lead-based paint on any interior surface,” according to Article 47 of the NYC Health Code. And under Local Law One, private landlords who are renting a newly-available unit are required to fully abate lead paint on doorways, windows and other high-impact surfaces, which tend to create significant amounts of lead dust.

Neither of these provisions apply to schools."

This is in part because the Council has uniquely limited authority over DOE, which is legally still considered a state agency even under Mayoral control.  Yet the Department has been expanding 3K and preK programs and assuming more authority over child care services, which is slowly but surely further whittling away the ability of the Council to make law and provide checks and balances.

A recent audit by the NY State Comptroller also found preK classrooms in CBOs and public schools with "potential fire and safety hazards,  toxic cleaning supplies" and in at least one case, peeling lead paint.

In response to the WNYC investigation, Mark Treyger, chair of the NYC Council Education Committee commented,

“There's a gap in terms of our ability to legislate over the DOE directly on this issue.  Quite frankly, they don't like when the City Council has certain power over their policies and regulations and rules. However, I will not accept resistance from DOE on this front.”


The reality is that since DOE is not under municipal control, new state laws may have to be passed to require stricter scrutiny and remediation for lead paint in NYC schools, even as DOE is absorbing more and more power over childhood services that used to be given to other city agencies, such as Early Learn.

And yet there has been little push back by the Speaker or the City Council as a whole to ensure adequate checks and balances which would require advocating for municipal control.

More on the WNYC findings and the Mayor's response in the twitter "Moment" below.

⚡️ “High levels of lead dust found in NYC schools”https://t.co/cKeFa7qHas

— leonie haimson (@leoniehaimson) June 25, 2019

Update on Lead - what's going on?

2/27/17 Update: see the WNYC story here and the comment from lead expert Dr. Morri Markowitz head of the lead prevention program at Montefiore Hospital, who convincingly argues against DOE's false assurances that there has never been a case of lead poisoning at a NYC school.  How would they know spoint out ince there is no systematic testing of children above the age of 2 in NYC? I also want to that while the NY law calls for testing of lead in school water every five years,  DC schools test every year, as will NJ schools from now on. That's what this Michigan bill proposed by their Governor requires, and this bill just introduced in Massachusetts.

Last Thursday night, I gave a presentation on the capital plan to District 6 CEC.  Since many of the   parents in the district at the meeting were  understandably concerned about the high levels of lead reported in the water of some of their schools -- including a finding of 6,620 parts per billion (ppb) and 493 ppb at the building shared by Muscota and Amistad, as well as elevated levels at P.S. 98, I.S. 52  and Washington Heights Academy -- I also provided an update on this critical issue.

As I pointed out in this DNAinfo article, DOE officials had dragged their feet ever since the lead scandal erupted in Flint Michigan, which drew attention to this issue for the first time in years.   In its first round of testing last year, DOE refused to follow the recommended protocol and instead flushed out the water from pipes first before gathering samples which tends to diminish lead levels. This discredited method was also used by the government officials in Flint to minimize the problem of lead and also violated recommended EPA guidelines. 

Initially,  DOE also refused to test the water in schools built after 1986-- even though most experts advised all schools should be tested.  As we saw in the case of Muscota, new school buildings sometimes have lead levels as high or higher than older buildings. In response to the city's insistence on flushing the water before testing it,  Dr. Marc Edwards, the Virginia Tech expert who brought national attention to the crisis in Flint said, “The results should be thrown into the garbage, and the city should start over."

Then in June 2016, the NY legislature passed a new law requiring that water at all schools be tested with the “first draw”  to more accurately assess the lead levels that a child might be exposed to,  as recommended by experts and the EPA.

Though Governor Cuomo didn't sign the legislation until September, many districts started retesting the water over the summer in expectation that the law would take effect soon.  The NYS Department of Health released an memo in late August to school districts, informing them of the urgency of this issue;  and emergency regs were issued Sept. 6, letting them know that any outlets found to have water with lead at more than 15 parts per billion -- the "action level" -- would have to be shut off and the sources of lead identified and removed until lead fell below this limit.  The regulations also called for a deadline for retesting the water in all schools by October 31, 2016.  (You can check out the DOH documents here.)

Parents and others were supposed to be informed of the results within six weeks of testing, and also be told the plans to remediate the lead; districts were mandated to report all results to the state no later than November 11, 2016.

Yet even after law passed and the regulations issued, DOE refused to adopt the new protocols.  Inexplicably, NYC officials didn't begin retesting schools according to the mandated method until sometime this winter, according to a letter written by Deputy Chancellor Elizabeth Rose.  

The results? As of January 27, according to the NY State Department of Health, 96 percent of schools in state outside of NYC had finished retesting;  yet NYC had submitted results for less than one third of schools, and would not have complete results until sometime in mid-2017. So far, 9 percent of tested school faucets and fountains in NYC schools have been found to release water above the action level, according to the NY State Department of Health.  

But what has not yet been widely reported is that even earlier, in June 2016, the American Academy of Pediatrics came out with new guidelines that schools should limit the amount of lead in their water to no more than 1 part per billion, as opposed to the 15 parts per billion mandated in NY state law. Why? Because as AAP stated, ”There is no identified threshold or safe level of lead in blood…No Amount of Lead Exposure is Safe for Children.”  

Indeed, research has shown that children with blood levels even less than 5 micrograms per deciliter suffer from lower IQ , worse test scores, and higher rates of inattention, impulsivity and hyperactivity.  

Here is a post I wrote earlier, with the research evidence that there is no safe threshold -- given that any detectable blood levels of lead in children are correlated with worst outcomes.  See the charts to the right,  from a study by researchers at Yale and Brown called "Lead Exposure and Racial Disparities in Test Scores," showing that preschool children with very low levels of lead are likely to have lower test scores in later grades in math and ELA.

Accordingly, DC schools have now adopted the AAP lower guidelines of 1 part per billion for water, and have retested and installed filters in outlets at schools, recreation centers and libraries.  

The lead levels of young children under six have been declining overall, according to the NYC Department of Health,  since the NYC Council passed a strict lead paint law in 2003 over Mayor Bloomberg's veto.  Yet  2 percent of NYC children are  still found to have blood levels at or above 5 mcg per deciliter.  And children's blood levels are rarely tested again after the age of 3.

All of which makes the comments of Oxiris Barbot, the first deputy commissioner of NYC Department of Health, as quoted in DNAinfo, frankly irresponsible:

Her message to kids: “Drink more water in schools,” because, "the more you run the water through the pipes, the more you're flushing out the stale water."

 

Really? This is the remediation method recommended by a health professional, given the new recommendations of the AAP?  When the building shared by Muscota and Amistad found one outlet with lead at 6,620 parts per billion (ppb) and another at 493 ppb?     And the school at Roosevelt Island, where a sink in the weight room was found to have water with 3,430 ppb?

As Dr. Marc Edwards has said, "Frankly, a onetime exposure to even 100 parts per billion is a concern,” given the research findings on the devastating impact of even low levels of lead."  The city needs to be far more honest with parents and more scrupulous in addressing this problem than it has been in the past. 

See the NY Dept of Health report  to the Governor and the Legislature, Lead in School Drinking Water, dated Jan. 27, 2017; and the NY DOH school water data reporting pages and maps, as of today without any NYC data. Also check out this just-released report from  the Environment America Research and Policy Center, Get the Lead Out: Ensuring Safe Drinking Water for Our Children at School, February 2017.