B-Roll, Video, Audio, Photos & Rush Transcript: Governor Hochul Makes an Education Budget Announcement

Earlier today, Governor Kathy Hochul celebrated her 'Back to Basics' legislation signed into law as a part of the FY 2025 Enacted Budget. The Governor highlighted this crucial initiative at the Albany School of Humanities today where she visited a first grade class using instructional best practices grounded in the Science of Reading. Governor Hochul's 'Back to Basics' plan ensures every New York classroom uses this type of evidence-based instruction to improve reading proficiency rates in New York State. This is part of Governor Hochul's record investments in education through the FY 2025 Enacted Budget, which increases school aid by $1.3 billion to nearly $36 billion, including $24.9 billion in Foundation Aid.

B-ROLL of the event 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 Governor's remarks available here.

PHOTOS of the event will be available on the Governor's Flickr page.

A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks is available below:

Ah, good morning. Wow. Fifth grade - are you sure? Not high school? You didn't slip in here from the high school? Really, I want to thank you for just reminding us of the joy that people can have when they open up the pages of a book. It takes you away, it engages you, it helps you even face some of your own challenges with stories like you just relayed.

I've been addicted to books since I was a very young girl as well. I used to go off to our public library at a time when you're eight years old your parents let you leave by yourself and walk through downtown streets and cross at the crosswalk and go to the library and just lose yourself in the book stacks, and what an escape that was for me too. We share that in common.

I want to thank everyone who's here today for welcoming us - especially our principal from the Albany School of Humanities, Marie Culihan. Let's give her a round of applause. Superintendent Joseph Hochreiter, the Albany School District. We see him in many, many places, and you really, profoundly changed this school district, for the better. And, we're getting into the specifics, but I want to thank you for all you've done. Again, Raylena Terrell, fifth grader - great job. Well written. Well said. Marine biologist. Maybe a writer too, I'm just putting it out there. County Executive Dan McCoy, I believe is in the room. Yes, no. Okay, misinformation there. Melinda Person, the President of NYSUT. We just saw her up in Syracuse yesterday where we announced that we're literally changing the curriculum in the schools in the surrounding area of Upstate where students are going to learn more about STEM and careers early on because of the 50,000 jobs coming to Micron. And so how exciting that is. So, let's give her a round of applause for what she does statewide. But she's always there.

So, I just got a chance to spend some time with some very adorable first graders who put everything in perspective for you. And they're - I was so impressed to see first graders using their minds in ways that I know was not available when my children were learning how to read. I used to be one of those lunchroom monitors. I'd go and clean the tables off so you can keep an eye on your kids. They'd think you're there just to help, but you're like, who are they hanging out with? Are they happy? So, I was one of those moms and spent a lot of time in our schools and I never saw anything like this. And this gives me a chance to cap off quite an extraordinary week as we went around talking about how New York State really delivers for New Yorkers, from public safety to housing to mental health.

And today we're talking about something that one would think is basic, but was not being done the right way, and that is how we teach our children to read here in New York. Teach them to read and to read well. Back in January, after many conversations with Melinda and Randi Weingarten and others who truly believe in lifting up our students, we said we'd launch a Back to Basics initiative, an unprecedented set of solutions designed to reset how our schools approach reading.

I was actually rather surprised to find out that other states and some localities had embraced this idea and realized that the way students have been taught for nearly 20 years had now been debunked, it wasn't working, the teachers knew this. The teachers told me this, but nobody stood up and challenged the status quo because, as we see too often here in the State of New York, the answer is we've always done it that way. Those of you who are getting to know me know that it's the worst thing you can tell me, because I'm going to say, why? Is it the best way? Can we do better? And we found a way to teach our children in a better way, and we got it done. So, I do want to thank everybody who's been part of this. And our strong partnership with the Legislature, they're just as engaged and supportive of initiatives like this.

So, we built a record that is going to make our teachers and students very proud, investing $35.9 billion - a $1.3 billion increase from last year, and the highest amount in history. I've committed to raising the bar high since I took office. I've raised school aid for the Albany School District by $47 million, more than 36 percent. And it is doing very well under the stewardship of our great Superintendent here. And again, I want to thank you.

As part of that, we're turning the page on how we teach students how to read and bringing us in line with nationally accepted best practices. And this is urgent. We've already lost too many young people who are struggling to read, not just as children, but it carries over into adulthood. It affects your ability to understand everything, from filling out your job application to communicating with others and getting caught up on the news. If you don't have the full capacity to read properly, it's a setback. So, we need to make sure that people can read well and position them for success.

But right now, many students in New York are not set up for that success. So, I'm pushing this aggressively. I'm glad we got it through in the Budget. I want to start yesterday, because research shows that students who don't learn to read by the end of the third grade are more likely to drop out of school years later. And then what happens? They cycle in and out of the criminal justice system in some cases, or they just live in poverty. So, this third grade is a critical point in the development of our young people and whether or not they are set up for success or not. So, let's take a step back and look at the problem, as I mentioned.

Back in the 2000s, many schools relied on something called balanced literacy. Sounds great, doesn't it? It wasn't. That actually contradicts the science of how we read now, how we've learned how to read. It de-emphasized connecting sounds with letters, commonly known as phonics. And they pushed students to read by using context clues instead. It shouldn't be a game. You shouldn't have to find clues. It should be right in front of you. Just like the students I saw learning in a classroom a few minutes ago, these children already got it in first grade. They were way beyond their years, I could tell.

And so, it's hard for kids with learning disabilities as well. Those who speak English as a second language, they're at a disadvantage as well. The hardworking teachers knew this. They were saying, please give us some relief. And finally, we've realized that we need to build on the research that is out there that shows that students who've been exposed to this are performing better. And that's what's so exciting about this.

So, the science of reading, I call it Back to Basics. I'm a little more basic, but it's the science of reading. It's common sense and you have to master the basics before you can move on to more complex tasks. Just if you're taking violin lessons, you need to learn the scales before you can play your next violin concerto. No one questions that. But we have not been teaching our kids the right way for so long. And what's embarrassing to me, I come to find out that Connecticut's been doing it the right way. New Jersey has been. Proudly know that New York City has been doing it. So has the City of Albany, but it's been left up to people's discretion - district's discretion. So, why would we have disparities in this? Albany's been embracing this since 2016. And I'll tell you what, the numbers tell the story.

The number of Albany students in grades three through eight passing the state ELA exam has increased by nearly 50 percent. That's incredible. Let's give that a round of applause.

If you compare third graders at this Albany School of Humanities to third graders across the State, 67 percent of third graders here who've learned using phonics are proficient in English language arts. Statewide average is 45 percent. Our goal, like down the gauntlet right here: let's get the rest of the state up to where they need to be. Let's let them break through that 60 percent and then go beyond. This is what excites me. We'll be able to judge success a few years from now on how this works.

That is such a contrast, though, between what's happening here and other school districts. It's not the teacher's fault. They're taught, they're told to teach this way. That's what they learn. So, we now have to change the teaching of teachers as well and give them that fighting chance.

What I would also say here is extraordinary - just three weeks into kindergarten, 87 percent of the students can already break down words into sounds thanks to this curriculum. This is how we do it.

So, that's exactly what we're talking about here today. We're going to make sure that these students have what they need here. Phonics should not be a mystery. It's decoding, it's vocabulary. And again, I want to thank all the teachers here for what you do. It's really paid off. And also, nationally, proud of the fact that this school is one of 65 schools in the whole country, and just two in New York, that are recognized nationally for exceptional student achievement. So, let's give them a round of applause for what they do.

Again, and when I put this out there, it's a little radical, pushing the status quo, but I also knew I wanted to hear from our teachers and what this meant. And again, I thank Melinda Person for what she has done in bringing this to our attention and saying that we need to fund this re-training. You cannot just say, "Go do this." You know I'm not a huge fan of these mandates. Sometimes we have to, but not always. And the teachers trained years ago had the outdated methods and now we need to invest in them. Let's do that quickly. They ask for it, they ask for the tools, they ask for the resources. That's why we have $10 million in our Budget for teacher training for these programs so they can be prepared to start using them.

We're going to start right off with 20,000 teachers and teaching assistants. We go big. We have to make up for lost time here. That is the urgency I'm talking about. So, this is how we do it.

Also expanding SUNY and CUNY's microcredentialing programs. They have one at SUNY New Paltz. I was with the Chancellor John King this morning who was telling me all about how this program works to make sure that our current and future teachers are prepared.

So, like I said, sometimes you just have to be out there. Question why. And those are some of the critical thinking skills you learn in a school like this that I employ all the time. "Why" is my favorite word. Why? Why are we doing it this way?

And my opinion, this is the Excelsior State. We should be number one in every category there is. And when we're not, I'm going to question that. And I will find an answer. And I will find a solution. And we'll break down the barriers to getting it done because I believe that all of our students deserve to have the best education possible. Just like you heard from Raylena who's obviously doing so well. And we wish her the very best when she leaves this school and goes off to sixth grade next year. So, I want to thank her.

And with that let me thank everybody here and bring up our Superintendent who can talk about what this really means at the ground level here in the schools, where it's actually making a difference.

Thank you everybody.

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