July 21, 2025
Over the years NYS Council members have heard me talk a lot about the lack of authority the Executive currently has over the State Education Department (SED) and how this has led to a myriad of serious problems including but not limited to my perception that the Board of Regents (oversees SED) does not fully appreciate the workforce challenges facing community-based mental health and substance use disorder agencies as well as they might and that somehow the focus remains on institutional workforce shortages to the exclusion of the community-based system of care.
Last week during the Governor’s Executive Cabinet Meeting both Gov. Hochul and DoH Commissioner James McDonald spoke about this situation, and the need for SED and the NYS Legislature to agree to amend scope of practice limitations for hospitals that are resulting in massive workforce shortages in these settings. But (as we all know) this is just a part of the story. Community-based agencies also need immediate relief to address daunting workforce challenges up and down the organizational chart.
Our job is to make scope of practice relief for ALL areas of healthcare a top priority for the Governor and the NYS Legislature in the weeks and months to come.
Hochul wants more control over a big part of state government
Dan Clark, Capitol Confidential, 7/21
New York, like the federal government, has three branches. Gov. Kathy Hochul controls one of them as the state’s chief executive.
That gives Hochul a lot of power. Her office oversees the day-to-day operations of state government, including the enforcement and implementation of laws approved by the Legislature. Hochul’s main job is to keep the ship from sinking.
Part of that comes from control over the state’s many agencies, including those which impact the daily lives of most New Yorkers.
But there is one agency that Hochul does not have control over. And she said Monday that she wants that to change while she’s still governor.
It’s important to note that its control directly impacts every resident of the state in one way or another.
That’s the New York State Education Department. Whether you have children or not, decisions made at the agency impact the quality of education in school districts and, in turn, the local tax bills that its residents face.
It’s not at all like the federal Department of Education, which is under the control of the president. That’s evidenced by the fact that President Donald J. Trump is trying to dismantle the federal agency, with support from his surrogates.
Hochul wouldn’t be able to do that, even if she wanted to. She has no direct authority over the agency, thanks to the delegates to the Constitutional Convention of 1938 and changes to state law, starting in 1947, that solidified that separation.
The state Education Department is governed by the Board of Regents, a 17-member panel that’s elected to five-year terms by the state Legislature. The Board of Regents is like a mini-Legislature for New York’s schools.
They choose the state commissioner of education — a position now occupied by Betty A. Rosa, and manage regulation of education in New York. There’s nothing Hochul can do on her own to change that.
But she wants that kind of power, she said Monday.Hochul with NYSUT President Melinda Person (Will Waldron/Times Union)
Hochul says NYSED should’ve done cellphone ban
Hochul held an event Monday in the Albany area to highlight the new statewide ban on the use of cellphones during the school day.
Each school district has to have its own plan to enforce the ban, ranging from special pouches that students can’t unlock to over-the-door shoe organizers. Those plans are due next month and 150 districts have already submitted them to the state.
Hochul considers the law one of her biggest achievements of the year. But she said Monday that the state Education Department wasn’t aligned with her on it.
“A cellphone ban could have come from the state Education Department, but there is resistance to this, whereas then I have to step up and lead and say I’m putting our kids first and this is how it’s going to be,” Hochul said.
Rosa said in January that she would prefer school districts to have more local control over the cellphone ban, and whether there should be one, but lawmakers ultimately agreed to Hochul’s proposal.
It wasn’t the last time this year that we saw friction between the Hochul administration and the state Education Department.
Rosa also opposed changes made in state law that will now give nonpublic schools more flexibility in how they show the state they’re providing an education that’s just as good as public school. That change was made to favor yeshivas, in particular.
Because that was agreed to by Hochul and the Legislature, it overruled regulations that had been promulgated by the Education Department.
But if Hochul had control over the agency in the same way she did others, she could’ve torpedoed those regulations all on her own. That’s the kind of power she’d prefer, she said, using the cellphone ban as an example.
“Someday, some governor may have different authority to be able to make those decisions. I wish it happened while I was still governor. Maybe it will, maybe it won’t,” Hochul said. “I don’t think it’s appropriate that I don’t have the say over those policies.”NYSED Commissioner Betty A. Rosa (Will Waldron/Times Union)
What NYSED said about Hochul’s comments
Hochul also made a point to say that she’s often out of the loop on decisions made at the education agency.
“I’m going to continue working within the unfortunate limitations of my power because, as you know, in the state of New York the governor’s office does not determine education policy,” Hochul said.
“I often read about what has been decided in the newspaper,” she said. “And that’s a source of frustration for me, to be honest with you.”
I asked J.P. O’Hare, director of communications at the state Education Department, about Hochul’s comments Monday. He said they’ll review them carefully and “respond appropriately when the time is right.”
The agency and the governor traditionally don’t have an adversarial relationship, he added, saying a lot of their work together often happens behind the scenes to improve education in New York.
But they weren’t aware of Hochul’s dissatisfaction, he said.
“We are actively working to identify the source(s) of the governor’s apparent frustration regarding communication with our agency, which remains unclear considering our near-daily engagement with her education policy team and senior leadership, and our regular coordination with the Division of the Budget and other state agencies,” O’Hare said.
“Typically, professionals seek out direct conversations on such matters to ensure clarity and work toward meaningful, productive outcomes. In uncertain times like these, alignment is critical. As with any strong partnership, however, communication is a two-way street,” he continued.
I doubt this is the start of an all-out war between Hochul and the state Education Department but it’s clear that something’s been simmering for quite some time.