Governor Hochul: “Today I'm here to sign two bills to help really nurture the leaders of tomorrow and develop that pipeline of talent…I have companies, semiconductor companies, high tech companies coming from around the world. And what they ask me as the leader of the state, ‘Am I going to find workers with the skills that I'm looking for? Because if I can't, I'll go somewhere else.’ So this is also a matter of economic survival and success for our state.”
Hochul: “I encourage all of you to take a tour, talk to these students…They're great ambassadors. They're articulate, they're smart, they're passionate, they're exactly what you ought to have in the next generation of leaders. And that's why I am so confident that the State of New York is going to be in great hands when these young people graduate and assume their rightful positions as leaders in our society, in our state, and in our country.”
Earlier today, Governor Kathy Hochul signed legislation to help high school students succeed -- both in and out of the classroom. Legislation (A.514-A/S.5650-A) ensures parents and students receive information on what advanced placement courses are offered, how to enroll in them, and the benefits of participation. Legislation (S.1732/A.6091) establishes peer selected student governments either in high schools or district-wide where there currently are none. This is Governor Hochul's latest commitment to New York's students as they head back to school, building on multiple announcements this week to expand and support a diverse teacher workforce, expand childcare centers at SUNY campuses, and ensure school districts and BOCES have COVID-19 tests and masks available.
B-ROLL of the Governor’s tour of Tech Valley High School is available on YouTube here and in TV quality (h.264, mp4) format here.
VIDEO of the event is available on YouTube here and in TV quality (h.264, mp4) format here.
AUDIO of the event is available here.
PHOTOS of the event will are available on the Governor's Flickr page.
A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks is available below:
We all know the power of education. I felt it radiate through these halls as I toured Tech Valley. And I want to say that every New Yorker deserves to feel what I felt here today – that change is in the air. We are not teaching young people the way we had even a generation ago. The world has changed so rapidly, but I have confidence when we see educators, teachers, administrators, superintendents, and a willing student body come together, put together the collective power of their brains and their passions and their desire to do good and change the world, you do that here in this one place. I, as the Governor of the State of New York, have immense confidence in our future.
So to this Tech Valley community, I could not have been more impressed by what I witnessed here this morning. And I want to thank – first of all, I'm going to call out our co-student council presidents, please stand up, Jake, Aneice, and Katarina, for giving me an extraordinary tour. Thank you. Dr. Hawrylchak, I want to thank you for being a visionary because that's what it takes to take the status quo and shake it up and redefine the norms of education in a way that is powerful, but must be replicated many more places. So let's give a round of applause to our great principal, Dr. Hawrylchak.
Lauren Gemmill, I want to thank you as our Superintendent of the Capital Region BOCES, and also this is a coordinated effort with Joe Dragone. I want to thank him as our BOCES Regional Senior Executive Officer. We also have Gladys Cruz here, Questar BOCES Superintendent. Gladys, thank you for the collaboration, how this operates. This is a collaboration among two BOCES, but what a great place to do this as well. Because learning is in the air when you're on this campus of UAlbany. And the students tell me that they literally can walk out the building and be immersed in education in college while they're still freshmen, sophomores, juniors, and seniors.
That is a gift I know they have, and I'm excited to see what they do with their lives. I'm going to stay in touch with the three of you, in particular. Okay? And also I thank the business partners who literally walk the halls here and make themselves available so these students can pressure test and ask questions – “And what brought you here? How did you become successful? What was your motivation?” So I love that it's not just in this ivory tower of what we've always thought of academia, but it's so integrated with the local community, and the community really cares about the outcomes here as well. So this is how we do it.
I've seen the face of education the way it needs to be done. And I've been focusing on every aspect of our educational system this past week. I toured an elementary school in Westchester a couple days ago, young kids, so excited to be back with their friends and teachers. I spent time with educators and I spent time with school psychologists talking to them about what they're seeing, especially in this post pandemic era where young people who went through such trauma did not walk away saying, “Everything's fine now. Covid is over, were back to normal.” It had a lingering effect. And adults need to recognize that and not just brush it off, but to realize you go through a trauma like that, that lasts months, years, you see family members perhaps lose their jobs. Learning from a kitchen table instead of a classroom. Disconnected from your friends, your normal social outlets. Maybe your grandparents got sick in a nursing home, you couldn't see them.
It was a lot. It was a lot for adults. Let's not forget the young people, whether they were in kindergarten or they were seniors in high school, they are forever affected. So when I talk to school psychologists, I know that the state has a major role to play, which is why this year we announced $1 billion to help with mental health statewide. But just this past week announced $108 million to go into our schools to make sure that our schools have the professionals who could listen and help these young people because if we help them now when they're struggling, we can help avoid a lifetime of these challenges. Catch it early – that's what we're trying to do here today.
But this place is quite extraordinary. And this is a place we're going to continue to invest in, to celebrate, to elevate, because we're investing a lot of money in schools overall. Education – $34.5 billion, a record. More money ever spent in education in the history of the State of New York. But those dollars have to return into results, and those results are a more highly educated class of students, but ultimately a more highly educated and motivated workforce.
That's how our state gets the competitive edge when other states are trying to catch up and, in fact, we're in competition with the rest of the world. I stopped in a global studies classroom. I stopped in a class where the students are learning Chinese – they’re not learning easier languages, they're learning Chinese because that is the future of business and integrated economies around the globe.
We also invested in foundation aid, which is the equalizer for young people born – no fault of their own – in a zip code that has been underserved, underfunded for their entire lives. And we're righting the wrongs of the past by investing in foundation aid.
And so we also want to talk about investing in the kids today and giving them opportunities. And today I'm here to sign two bills to help really nurture the leaders of tomorrow and develop that pipeline of talent. Because I've been to this facility many times. I have companies, semiconductor companies, high tech companies coming from around the world. And what they ask me as the leader of the state, “Am I going to find workers with the skills that I'm looking for? Because if I can't, I'll go somewhere else.”
This is also a matter of economic survival and success for our state. So we have to make sure that we're focusing on that pipeline of talent for our employers as well. So what we're doing here – hands-on internships, sophisticated work with robots and partnerships among the students, building and collaborations, thinking about the real world, replicating what they're going to be exposed to in the world, so I can go to employers and say, “No, no, don't worry about – the people I'm going to be sending your way graduated from our schools, especially this one. They're ready for you. Like they're probably going to be able to teach you a thing or two because they know how to work together and collaborate and innovate. And think outside the box.” And that's exactly what we're talking about.
I also wanted to talk about how important our AP programs are, and we need to make them more accessible as well as making sure that students understand their responsibility as civic leaders someday, if not now. I talked about my experiences as a high school student – wasn't the best student. That's another story. But I took time one year when I was a sophomore and part of a junior year. I did internships. I took an hour bus ride from my suburban high school to the City of Buffalo, worked on campaigns, worked with people – and look up the name Tim Russert. A real leader. Worked on my first race for Congress, worked on my first race for U.S. Senate, Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, and I'll be in New York City tonight honoring him as a building is named after him at CUNY.
I wanted students to hear from me, "The classroom is great, but sometimes getting out and being exposed to the world and then these internships can change your life in a way that you don't know now." But I know, as someone whose life was changed, it makes a profound difference. So learning civics, talking about our responsibility to each other, but also to society. I believe that student government programs are an important part of that, and we believe that every school should have this, every school district.
I'm signing a bill today that requires the establishment of student government organizations in all public districts with at least one high school. Students need to have this opportunity to understand how government is done and to do a trial of that when they're students, try to solve problems, try to work together, vote on ideas, where the majority will have the say, respecting dissent, but that's how we're going to change the future as well, by ensuring that our young people know how government is supposed to work and perhaps not the way it's working in places today.
I want to thank our sponsors, Senator Shelley Mayer and Assemblymember Steve Otis for having the vision to know that this is important. I thank you for being here, Assemblymember to promote this and all the other work you're doing to promote higher education, as well as K through 12. These are not just clubs we're talking about. They're incubators of civic learning and leadership. And that's what I saw on display here today.
So, students need to know, not just technology, not just how to get along, not just how to learn Chinese, but you need to know about the external world and how government plays such a distinct role in our lives every day. And make sure that your voices matter, your voices can rise up collectively, individually. That's what a democracy is all about. So know the history of our country. But also know how fragile democracy is. We have seen that fragility in our lifetime recently, but good people stand up and protect it, and that's what I want you to understand now. That's on all of our shoulders. Whether you're a high school student or an adult, we all have a moral responsibility to protect the democracy, the government, that was handed down to all of us. So that's why this is important.
Also, I'm signing a second bill that requires all school districts and charter schools to provide information to families about Advanced Placement. I had a meeting with students a few minutes ago talking about the AP courses that are available to them, as well as the actual college credits they can take by walking next door. This gives them an advantage. Talk about what employers are looking for. A student who builds their career and does more than just the typical high school classes, who is willing to push themselves, work harder, longer hours. They're developing a work ethic which is going to serve them well in life. But also getting that advantage so they can save money, maybe they can skip a whole year in college. It's one less year you have to pay for if you have enough credits to go for that first year. My son did it. I couldn't have been happier.
Then he went to a SUNY college, and then he became an RA and got free room and board. I was lucky. His sister was a little different. That's all right. That's all right. It's good for the students as well. They have that advantage. They've been exposed to these courses now to say, "I really thought I would like that more, but I don't. I'm not going to waste time in college on that now."
So, it also helps with the selection process because college is an expensive proposition. It's important. It's not essential for every single person. There's a lot of jobs out there without it, and that's important to know as well. But when you want to go to college, you want to make sure that you're picking a career where you can be able to support yourself and be able to pay back the student loans.
So AP classes can get you a leg up. You miss a semester, a year, a year and a half, of not having to pay tuition. That's pretty darn good. So we want to make sure that the bill sponsored by Senator John Liu and Majority Leader Crystal Peoples-Stokes will do that. It is going to make sure that this information is directly provided to families. Some families, different environment. Maybe the parents are professionals. They took AP classes, they went on to college.
They might have a master's degree. That's probably a given that a student knows there are AP classes. What about the other classes? What about the other families where the parents didn't do that? They may not have gone much beyond high school, if they graduated from high school themselves. First generation, maybe eighth grade is all they got. How are they going to know to tell their students the importance of AP classes in college? They won't know. We're going to make sure they know. I'm going to sign this bill as well and make sure that students have this opportunity to be better themselves, get the leg up and take AP classes while they're in school.
So I'm going to make sure that they know how we can cover the costs as well, make sure that there's financial aid available for these programs. Again, we have to help families. Families are struggling. Middle class families just want that shot, the American dream for their kids. College education lifted my family up. My father and mom lived in a trailer park. Dad worked at a steel plant, but dad went to school at night with a couple of babies at home. I was one of them. Got a college degree. Next thing we know, our lives are changed forever. I want that available to everybody.
Everybody who wants to succeed has to know that they have a government, a state, that is invested in that future. And that's why we're going to keep opening these doors of opportunities so they can find their path, their passion for the rest of their lives. And that's why we're here today to talk about this, to sign these bills, but also to tell the rest of the world that what's happening here at Tech Valley should be happening everywhere.
What I'm seeing in the short visit here, I encourage all of you to take a tour, talk to these students. They're only juniors so they are going to be here a lot longer, right? Absolutely. But they are great ambassadors. They're great ambassadors. They're articulate, they're smart, they're passionate, they're exactly what you ought to have in the next generation of leaders.
And that's why I am so confident that the State of New York is going to be in great hands when these young people graduate and assume their rightful positions as leaders in our society, in our state, and in our country. So thank you everyone. I'm going to sign these bills after we bring Steve Otis up to say a few words.
I want to thank him for his leadership on these bills, but also your passion overall to helping young people have the best shot in life. Ladies and gentlemen, I present you Assemblymember Steve Otis.