Establishes the research literacy enhancement program to make grants to academic institutions within the state which seek to conduct research on literacy; creates the research literacy enhancement fund.
This bill creates a new “Research Literacy Enhancement Act” in the Education Law and a corresponding special fund in the State Finance Law. It directs the Commissioner of Education to establish a research literacy enhancement program that would award grants to academic institutions in New York that are conducting, or are interested in conducting, research on literacy. The bill expressly includes basic, clinical, social, translational, technological, and behavioral research related to literacy.
Grant awards under the program must be made through an open, competitive peer-review process designed to ensure objectivity, consistency, and high quality. The bill also states that all investigators, regardless of affiliation, must have equal access and opportunity to compete for program funds. Money for the program would be deposited into the new research literacy enhancement fund, which would be held jointly by the Commissioner of Taxation and Finance and the Comptroller and used only for program administration and grants.
The bill would add a new article 107 to Title 6 of the Education Law and a new section 95-l to the State Finance Law. It would create a dedicated funding mechanism for literacy research grants, establish administrative authority in the Department of Education, and require that all program monies be kept separate from other state funds. The measure would affect academic institutions, researchers, and the Department of Education by creating a new state grant program focused specifically on literacy research.
No committee transcript or vote record is provided, so there is no recorded debate or voting pattern to gauge support or opposition. Based on the bill text alone, the measure appears policy-oriented and noncontroversial in structure, emphasizing competitive grantmaking, research quality, and broad eligibility for applicants.
The bill text itself does not identify explicit points of contention. Potential issues that could arise in discussion include the scope of eligible research areas, how research priorities would be set by the commissioner, the size and source of funding for the new special fund, and whether the program would favor certain institutions or research approaches despite the stated open competition requirements. No specific objections or supporters are documented in the provided materials.