Carl Marcellino named head of Senate Education Committee

State Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan said Friday that Sen. Carl Marcellino will be named chairman of the chamber's Education Committee.

Marcellino (R-Syosset), 72, is a former science teacher and administrator in New York City schools. He has spent 20 years in the Senate and was among Republicans from Long Island who led the effort earlier this month to name Flanagan (R-East Northport) majority leader in a brief upstate-downstate competition.

Marcellino takes over the committee as education issues are prominent in New York.

Parents, teachers unions and legislators are pressing for changes to the Common Core curriculum. Teachers unions also are leading a charge to revise a new, more extensive teacher evaluation system created by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo.

"Senator Marcellino has a wealth of experience in the Legislature and is a former public school teacher and school board member with a strong grasp of the education system in New York State," Flanagan, the former Education Committee chairman, said in a statement.