(cheerful electronic music) (inquisitive music) - [Male Announcer] Today the Senate majority will cancel legislation.

- [Female Announcer] I will fight like hell for you every single day.

Like I've always done and always will.

(group chattering) - [Male Announcer] Another stand.

- Welcome to this special edition of New York.

Now I'm Dan Clark.

On this week's show we're going to drop the news of the week and dive into a few different issues in a little bit.

We're going to break down what school boards actually do and explore a new program from the State Education Department that's connecting students with civics.

But first, a look at New York's aging infrastructure.

New York's infrastructure ranges from roads, to drinking water, to things like mass transit and waste removal.

And in a recent report, the American Society of Civil Engineers gave the state's infrastructure an average grade of C. Not A, not B, but C. And that's because when it comes down to it a lot of our infrastructure here really is not that great.

So for more on that, we recently spoke with assembly member Angelo Santabarbara a democrat who's an engineer himself.

Assemblyman Santabarbara.

Thank you so much as always.

- It's great to be here and thank you for having me on your show.

- Of course.

So we're talking about infrastructure which is an issue that I would describe as not so sexy of an issue but I swear every time I'm driving down the road and I hit a pothole, the immediate thing that comes to mind is why is our infrastructure so bad in New York?

So we're talking about this report from the American Society of Civil Engineers about New York's infrastructure.

We get a C this year out of A through F, the traditional grading system.

Can you give us kind of like an overview?

How does our infrastructure look like in New York overall?

- Overall we did get a C grade, which means, you know, it's an average grade but there's still improvements that are needed across the board, anywhere from transit to ports, to rail, roads you just mentioned.

So the report card is good 'cause it shows us where we need to focus these dollars.

But it also shows that with, in the case of roads, we're battling a lot of, you know, wear and tear because we live in the northeast, a lot of wastewater treatment plants and water, you know, water infrastructure facilities.

They were built before modern engineering design.

And now that we have newer materials, we have newer design, we have better materials, better products, we just gotta make that investment and these things will last a lot longer and pavements will last a lot longer if we can get to the point where we can replace them with these newer materials.

- Goodness, I hope so.

(group laughing) So let's go through, I want to just very quickly go through what we're talking about in terms of infrastructure because it's not just roads and bridges.

- [Angelo] Right.

- We're talking roads, bridges, aviation, drinking water, rail waste, water, solid waste, a whole bunch of stuff.

So I know we have the grade of a C. Where are we doing kind of okay?

- There's, there was a couple of grades where, you know, solid waste seems to be a good area.

I think there's 16 to 25 years of capacity left, which is good by the ASCE standards.

You know, roads were under lower end and I think that that's always a challenge.

But rail, you know, rail is another area where we need to make some investment, drinking water, one of the best grades I think was public parks, where we got a B.

But things like wastewater transit, you know, they're on the lower end, they're in D category.

So that shows that you know, we need to make more investments there.

We need to replace a lot of these wastewater treatment plants.

I know in my district, in the city of Amsterdam, there's a lot of aging infrastructures.

The pipes, a lot of the pipes are clay which is not a very good material to use compared to the plastics they're using now that virtually lasts a life, forever, almost forever.

I don't know if it's forever, but it lasts a very long time.

But it shows that, you know, the state can put these dollars in but really we need help from the federal government and that's what this report card is intended to be.

It's intended to be a tool for us to address infrastructure concerns holistically.

But it also to go back because every state does this report card and every every state's in a little different category, different position, they can go back to the federal government and say, hey, you know, a lot of these things were built by federal dollars.

We're trying to keep up here.

We can only do so much, we're going to need another investment and this shows that we need another significant investment in federal dollars.

- Do you think, this is a curious thing for me because I'm always thinking about how climate change affects these conversations.

We have infrastructure needs that are influenced by climate change.

We need to prepare for them.

How much of this investment do you think is for older infrastructure needs that are now aging out of the system versus how much is new infrastructure needs that we're adapting to?

Or is it a mix of both I guess?

- I think that, you know, that's one of the, if you're, once you go through a report, one of the things that they say, they make a point to highlight is that we do need to re reassess our infrastructure needs.

You know how, you know, how are we using our rail, you know, port, the port, our ports are some of the busiest ports in the entire country, you know, and that has changed over time.

You know, where, how many more roads are we going to build?

How many more do we need?

You know, what's the population look like?

So in addition to that, you look at the changing technology, the changing infrastructure, you know, broadband is infrastructure.

- [Dan] Yeah.

- You know, and through COVID we saw how important that was.

You know, when you go to something like remote learning and the state, parts of the state don't have reliable broadband, you just can't do it.

So that is another category where we need to reassess where are we investing these dollars.

We need to reassess how we're gonna spend these dollars.

The card, the report card is useful because not everybody's an engineer in the state legislature.

I happen to be, and I was involved with ASCE for a while, but not everybody is.

So this makes it convenient.

You know, we're all used to report cards from school.

This shows, hey, you're doing good here, you're not doing so good here.

So when it's time to make decisions, you know, in budget, during budget time trying to make choices, I think this would be very helpful for people at the state capital, for the governor to look at, for everyone to kind of come together and say, you know, everybody's gonna have the same report card, can all focus on where we need to invest the most dollars.

- Is this an area, do you think we need new funding streams to invest this, invest in these kind of things?

Or do you think it's a matter of investing the money we have maybe in a more targeted way towards these areas that may get lower grades?

Can we even I guess, put more money into this than we are?

- Well I think that, you know, the state budget, it's a big budget.

- [Dan] Yeah.

- I think there's always choices to be made.

It's a question of if we're gonna make the commitment or not to invest in some of the categories here, how much of a commitment are we gonna make?

And I'm hoping that we will see more of the state budget invested in our infrastructure.

Just as we saw the last few years, I know broadband was a big push and we made quite a bit of progress because we did focus our efforts on broadband, we saw how important it was, especially in some of the rural areas.

So you can see that when it becomes a priority, it can be done.

So same thing with any one of these categories.

When it becomes a priority for everybody at the state capital, you can see that you can make a difference and it can be done.

- Yes, we will be talking about that quite a bit (Dan laughing) in the first few months of the next year.

Until that, assembly member Angela Santabarbara, thank you so much.

- Thank you so much.

Great to be here.

(inquisitive music) - So we'll see if things get better there.

But for the rest of this week's show we're going to turn to New York's schools.

First, a sort of explainer, school boards have gained a lot of attention in the past few years with tense meetings going viral on social media and that's because school boards have a lot of power and more people now have an opinion about how it's used.

But for a lot of people it's unclear what that power even is or how school boards work.

More in that in this story from producer Catherine Rafferty and me.

(inquisitive music) The new school year is finally here and while teachers and students get settled in, the state's school boards are adapting to a new normal.

It's the first full school year since before the pandemic without major COVID rules like masks and remote learning.

That's to align the state with guidance from the CDC.

Governor Kathy Hochul announced the change in August.

- But the big news is no more quarantining, no more tests to stay and in the days of sending an entire classroom home because one person was symptomatic or test positive, those days are over.

- [Dan] About three quarters of the state's school districts plan to use federal COVID relief funding this year to deal with the pandemic's impact on students with a focus on gaps in learning.

That's according to an analysis from the New York State School Board's Association and decisions on how to use that funding to address issues caused by the pandemic will be made by local school boards.

But what exactly is a school board and what do they do?

It's something that voters choose but they usually don't get a lot of attention.

In a nutshell, local school boards govern their school system.

They put together the school's budget, oversee curriculum, manage the superintendent and more.

David Albert is from the New York State School Board's Association.

- It is the most fundamental basic form of democracy that we have.

And in many cases, school boards, decisions that they make will impact people more than decisions made in Washington or here in Albany because they're so local.

- [Dan] And recently, school boards have been in the news a lot across the country that's been fueled in part by the pandemic and politics.

Suddenly, school boards became a space for polarization and disagreement.

Parents and community members started flooding public meetings, voicing their thoughts on COVID rules like masks and curriculum related to race and the LGBTQ+ community.

But despite that tension, there's a lot to love about school boards, says Sarah Rogerson, she's vice president of a local school board in Schenectady County and also leads the Justice Center at Albany Law School.

- I love that Board of Education members are elected in a nonpartisan election.

I love that because from the jump you're talking about joining a team where the focus is not on political affiliation but on the district itself.

It's all volunteer, it's unpaid, it's 'cause Board of Ed members aren't supposed to represent any particular contingency, right?

It's the whole district, including people who don't have children but who pay taxes in the district, employees, administration.

Our job isn't to pick and choose among the competing priorities there but to make sure that everybody has a voice so that we can make the most informed decision.

- [Dan] And there are now extra layers to all that work coming out of the pandemic.

For Rogerson, her school board is focused on the student experience.

- It's not going to be a typical school year.

It's going to be our first closer to typical school year post pandemic, which means a huge focus on mental health and wellbeing, climate in the schools, how adults set examples for children coming out of a very difficult global situation.

And certainly, of course, the rise in the incidents of mass shootings have resulted in a related issue of security of the school grounds, security of our students and security of our employees.

- [Dan] At Rogerson's school board in Schenectady County, they elect student representatives to serve on their board.

They report on the day to day experiences of students in the district and offer their perspective on board policies.

Vera Amirbekian is a senior serving a second year as student rep to the board and Nina Knezevic is a junior who will begin service this year.

They had firsthand experience of the needs of students during the pandemic.

- So classes were shortened and also, obviously a lot of people were online, so they didn't get like the full spectrum of like, learning in a classroom and learning all the topics that we normally would.

- I think it'll be a couple years before we finally I guess, balance out and you would've learned everything last year to be able to move on to new information this year.

Also, summer slide, it always happens but in pandemic years it's been worse.

I think board meetings themselves are gonna look different because a lot of the privilege of the floor speakers that we've had during the pandemic was regarding certain vaccination mandates or mask mandates.

So I know that maybe those focuses will shift.

- I'm just excited for school to start back up because as I mentioned, like it was kind of down in the dumpster the co, well, more severe COVID times and so I'm excited just to see a lot of my friends and to socialize again and I'm really excited to start the new position on the board.

- [Dan] Some describe this school year as a sort of new normal and in some ways it is, but Tabetha Wilson a member of the school board in the city of Albany doesn't see it that way.

- I'd love to say that we are not going back to normal (Tabetha laughing) because normal had its, you know, institutional things that did not work for everybody as a society at least.

So we are moving forward with what feels most normal for people.

I think some folks will show up and wear mask at their discretion, you know, because there are still lingering aspects of the pandemic and we of course still monitor, you know, whether there's cases and things of that nature.

And we of course, still have all the protocols but very much so opening school like a time you or I would remember, like, back to school, there'll be activities, there'll be athletics there'll be after school, there'll be in-person aspects but we're still being mindful of the legacy impact of COVID and more importantly, the things that you can't physically identify, where it's like the social-emotional aspect that, of a generation who basically went to three years of this that was probably their whole middle school career or the most of their high school career.

- [Dan] And on top of all that, school boards are dealing with a statewide teacher shortage.

It's a national issue, but staffing is having a huge impact on districts in New York without a clear solution.

It was already a problem before COVID but Albert, from the School Boards Association, says the pandemic only made it worse.

- In 2020 and 2021, a lot of teachers retired.

Probably a little more than normal, not off the charts, but higher than normal.

At the same time, it's hard to find good qualified people to fill some of these roles.

I think the biggest challenge, quite honestly with schools, is gonna be bus drivers, in terms of hiring.

This is something that actually precedes the pandemic.

- [Dan] Part of that ties into funding, which determines a lot of what school boards are able to do in terms of a budget.

And while a lot of school funding comes from the local community in the form of taxes, a pretty significant chunk is from the state.

That money's decided in the state budget which is passed in Albany each year.

In the spring, the state legislature approved a record amount of state aid for schools this year at 31.2 billion dollars.

And Albert from the State School Board's Association is hoping for another boost in next year's budget.

- We've actually seen the foundation aid, which is the base kind of formula for schools.

It's the primary funding mechanism for public education in New York state.

And we have seen, in the last two years, a full funding of that formula.

The many years it was actually truncated, they didn't let it run as it as it should have, we have seen that funding formula run the way it is intended to run the last couple years.

So that's great.

So that's a huge priority for us.

- [Dan] In the meantime, school boards will continue their work at the local level, that involves input from the public and that doesn't always mean speaking out.

Getting involved can look like attending a meeting and just listening or joining a committee too.

And if that's not enough, there's always a chance for change.

School board elections happen in May, when voters decide the school budget and whether you're running for school board or casting your vote, Albert says you can play a big role in making a difference, but despite all of that school board members will tell you they're happy to do it.

Here's Wilson from Albany County, again.

- There's so many opportunities to be engaged that I feel like I underwent a transformation in a very short period of time about how to be civically engaged and I wanted that for everybody else too.

So I would like to stay involved in every capacity possible (Tabetha laughing) as long as possible.

I feel like it's a lifelong thing.

It's a lifelong learning process, absolutely.

(inquisitive music) - Now the one place without an elected school board is New York City, where the mayor has total control over schools.

But staying with education now, only about 37% of US adults say it's very important to follow politics to be a good member of society.

That's according to a survey from the Pew Research Center this year.

But a new program from the State Education Department is aimed at boosting civic engagement for New York's next generation.

State officials say the program is designed to teach kids how government works, why it's important to get involved and what they can do to change it.

This story, also from producer Catherine Rafferty and me.

(inquisitive music) What is the purpose of public education?

What does a sound and basic education look like?

New York State has a clear definition of that.

About two decades ago, the state's highest court held that the opportunity for a sound basic education means the state must offer the skills necessary to quote, function productively as civic participants capable of voting and serving on a jury.

- So that's powerful.

That is a constitutional right of every kid in this state, to be well prepared to exercise citizenship attributes and the schools were definitely falling down on that.

- [Dan] Michael Rebell is Executive Director of the Center for Educational Equity at Teachers College, Columbia University and founder of Democracy Ready and Why, a coalition of the leading groups and stakeholders with a goal of preparing young people for civic engagement.

Four years ago, the state board of regions created what's called the Civic Readiness Initiative.

That was to determine how best to promote civic preparation in public schools throughout the state.

New York Education Commissioner Dr. Betty Rosa, says the initiative is important to engage students in how civics can impact their communities.

- We're building agency by truly developing students abilities to elevate and give voice to the key issues in society.

- [Dan] As part of the initiative, Rebell was named chair of a special task force on civic readiness.

That panel was created to provide recommendations on the Civic Readiness Initiative.

Two years ago, the task force presented recommendations including a definition of civic readiness that's described as quote, the ability to make a positive difference in the public life of our communities through the combination of civic knowledge, skills and actions, mindsets and experiences.

Rebell says that definition is important because it not only covers civics, it targets the importance of media literacy and critical thinking.

- It speaks not only about civic knowledge which is important, understanding how government works, separation of powers, rule of law, those kinds of things.

But the definition also emphasizes civic skills and that means critical thinking, it means media literacy, which in these days is absolutely important.

Knowing how to use social media and the internet correctly.

How to distinguish accurate from inaccurate information.

- [Dan] Along with that definition, the task force also recommended a framework for a civic capstone project and a seal of civic readiness.

That's a formal recognition that a student has a high level of proficiency in terms of civic knowledge, civic skills, civic mindset and civic experiences.

To earn that seal, students have to finish the requirements for a region's diploma and score on a special point system geared towards civic engagement.

Those points can be earned in a lot of different ways, like reaching mastery level on a social studies regents exam, completing a service learning project and more.

The program launched in more than 300 school districts this fall after a pilot program last year.

Angelique Johnson-Dingle is the Deputy Commissioner for P-12 Instructional Support at the State Education Department.

- Education should not just simply happen to our students, it should happen for our students.

And by giving them the ability to target something that they are passionate about, something that they recognize, that they would like to work on, helps them to feel empowered and really impacts their social-emotional learning.

- [Dan] Shenendehowa Central Schools in Saratoga County, was one of the districts that participated in the pilot of the Seal Program last year.

Lisa Kissinger is the academic administrator in social studies there.

- We asked them to make presentations about what they had done in their extracurricular activities that they felt made the connections between what they had learned in their government classes and their civics classes to their experiences in the community.

So we were able to award 19 seniors the Diploma Seal last year at graduation.

So we were excited about that.

- [Dan] And teachers who've been involved in the program so far say it's been successful.

Bob Keyser, also at Shenendehowa, is a social studies teacher who worked closely with a group of students who earned the seal.

- We really gave them an opportunity to earn points for many different avenues, including work experience, so that many of them were out doing jobs in the community already, so they could do jobs and get it through there.

Why not give them credit for being involved in our communities and making a difference?

And showing them how they're already doing it.

And our hope was that would only, not only give them credit for that, but encourage more kids to be involved.

- [Dan] Siddhi Wadekar graduated from Shenendehowa High School last year and is now in college studying computer science.

For her Seal Project, she started a chapter of the club Superposition, an international nonprofit geared toward bridging the gender gap in STEM fields, science, tech, math and engineering.

- It felt like I could do something (Siddhi laughing) at the end for someone else, 'cause I still remember even in my STEM classes, I used to look around and I used to find like two or three other girls, I'm like, oh, (Siddhi laughing) like, but it is progressively getting better.

Like, a lot of people are talking about it.

So we just wanted to like, start a chapter at our school to help others get to learn more about it.

- [Dan] There are other strategies underway as well to get younger generations involved in civics.

The League of Women Voters in New York is also a member of the Democracy Ready and Why coalition.

And each year, they put on a program called Students Inside Albany.

About 60 high school students from across the state get the chance to come to the state capital and learn how public policy is proposed, enacted and changed in state government.

- The idea of the program is to learn how to influence public policy but also learn about your state government.

So how do they influence public policy or how can they, one model is what the League does, with local Leagues and we do community forums, we educate voters, all of that.

But we bring in other groups that, that lobby or at, make their voice heard in different ways.

- [Dan] Bierman sees both the Seal Program and the League's initiatives as ways to show youth how they can make tangible changes in their communities.

- You need to have the background.

You need to know how is this decision made?

How, where does it come from?

Is it a state decision?

Is it a city decision?

And what committees?

And what's the structure?

How does a bill get passed and what influence can I have on that process?

Because that's where they're gonna make change.

- [Dan] And for Bob Keyser from Shenendehowa, the future is bright for civically minded students who are interested in making a difference.

- And we do have a very fractured society right now but I think by having people out there, to hear other people's stories, understand what other people are going through that are not necessarily themselves but have different experiences, it leads to better solutions and common ground if people can understand what other people are going through.

- [Dan] Coming off the success of this past year, Johnson-Dingle from the State Education Department, hopes to expand the program and support districts who participate.

- We are proud of the growth we've seen in just this one year but we would hope that more would look to become a part of it.

Looking to provide more resources and supports for schools as districts may look to rework some of their locally decided curriculums to help support performing and engaging in this type of recourse.

Ultimately, at the end of it we want to make sure through an equity lens, that all students feel as if they have a voice, as if the things that are important to the matter and that they can use this course to develop that agency.

(inquisitive music) - And we will leave it there for this special edition of New York now.

But don't forget that you can watch this edition and everything else we do on our website that's at nynow.org.

Until then, thanks for watching this week's New York Now.

Have a great week and be well.

(inquisitive music) - [Male Announcer] Funding for New York Now is provided by WNET.