Research


Administrative History

The Joint Legislative Committee to Revise and Simplify the Education Law was mandated by the New York State Legislature through a concurrent resolution on April 5, 1963. Its initial purpose was to streamline the laws and statutes governing education in New York that had accumulated unsystematically over the years. In particular, the committee was concerned with clarifying the statutory relationship between the New York State Education Department and local school districts, which many felt did not allow sufficient freedom for local decision-making and innovation. Over the succeeding years, the committee was assigned other roles by the State Legislature. In 1964, the committee was charged with reviewing the state's Master Plan for School District Reorganization. In 1967, it was given the task of studying formulas for state education aid programs, including construction aid, transportation aid, and incentive aid for school district reorganization. In 1968, the committee proposed an urban education aid program.