Common Core Critics See Opportunity to Change State Regents Board

The Manhattan representative to the Board of Regents, Charles Bendit, announced he will step down this month, a year before his term expires. He cited the concerns of juggling the post with his real estate business, Taconic Investment Partners. This means the Democrat-led Assembly now gets to fill three vacancies that could further shift the political course of the 17-member panel.

The board is already losing Chancellor Merryl Tisch, who led the state's adoption of the controversial Common Core standards, and Vice Chancellor Anthony Bottar. The group New York State Allies for Public Education (NYSAPE), which is critical of the Common Core, is rallying around 15 candidates who support its views: 12 for Tisch's at-large seat and three for Bottar's seat, which includes Syracuse-Onondaga County.

Lisa Rudley, a Westchester parent and co-founder of NYSAPE, said her group will push for one of those at-large candidates, Luis O. Reyes, to replace Bendit because he's also from Manhattan. Reyes previously served on the city's old Board of Education and works at the Center for Puerto Rican Studies at Hunter College.

The Democrat-led Assembly gets to chose the Regents and is already planning a vote in March. A spokesman said the lawmakers will interview candidates for the Manhattan seat before then. This means whoever replaces Bendit could help chose the next Chancellor if he or she takes office in March. The Regents are expected to vote on new leadership at the end of the March, just before Tisch and Bottar leave.

However, NYSAPE and opt-out groups that oppose the current reliance on standardized testing are urging the board to delay that vote until Tisch and Bottar's replacements take office in April. "These are two pretty controversial regents," said Rudley, noting that local school boards don't choose their presidents until new members take their seats.

But the group High Achievement New York, which represents business groups and educators, argued that such a delay would be a departure from the Regents' bylaws to favor a one particular agenda. "Changing its rules to suit one group would move the Board closer to day to day politics, not further away," it wrote in a letter to the Regents.

The Regents set education policy, and were instrumental in the shift to new standards and tests that have provoked an outcry. Last year, 20 percent of students opted out of the state math and reading tests in the third through eighth grades. In response, a task force appointed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo recommended changes that were later approved by the Regents.

The new Education Commissioner, MaryEllen Elia, has said this year's tests will be shorter and students will not have a time limit. State tests will not be used to evaluate teachers until 2019-20. Elia also pledged to make adjustments to the standards, especially in the lower grades. But critics think those changes don't go far enough and are encouraging another opt-out protest. 

Regent James Tallon, who is also a former state assemblyman from Binghamton, acknowledged the board could be going in a different direction with three vacancies and a change in leadership. "Whether the next step is evolutionary or revolutionary is a very open question," he said.

The Regents are meeting next week, and it's expected they will discuss whether or not to delay choosing a new chancellor. Member Betty Rosa of the Bronx has announced she's running to lead the board and there's speculation that Lester Young, who heads a committee to improve outcomes for young men of color, is also interested. Of the two, Rosa has been much more critical of the policies under Tisch, especially the use of teacher evaluations that relied on state test scores.