“Governor Paterson chose to veto the education bill and jeopardize the educational future of millions of school children in this state. The economic investment that quality education provides ultimately stabilizes the future of our communities and our state. It is very telling that a former champion for the Campaign for Fiscal Equity court case and its parity is now a loser in the race to ensure a better life for the future of the youngest New Yorkers.”

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In 2010, our elected leaders must hear from each of us that we are not going to sit back and let our children fail. We hope you will join us as we continue to build momentum throughout 2010.

The time to engage is now.  Send a message to our leaders that cuts to education turn the clock back on New York children’s future.

The amazing group of people who gathered last night was proof that young professionals are key to progressive reforms to education in New York.   We left the event motivated to work as hard as we can to improve our system’s educational outcomes, and we hope you did too.

Last night, YPN member Erinn Smart challenged all of us to help support this movement by donating our last round of drinks to education.  If you were not able to contribute last night please consider making an online donation today of $20, $10 or even $5.

Your support will help us organize, empower and mobilize thousands of fellow New Yorkers to change the debate on public education reform, and force our elected leaders to focus on helping New York’s children succeed in the classroom and beyond.

We look forward to hearing your thoughts and ideas on expanding the YPN to reach more young professionals throughout New York.  The stronger we are, the bigger a difference we can make.

Right now our leaders in Albany are making critical decisions on how to close a $9 billion budget deficit.  The proposed budget cuts threaten to eliminate the resources our schools, classrooms and teachers need to effectively prepare students for success. New York schools will be forced to cut programs, increase class size and lay off teachers.  Our kids’ futures are being put in jeopardy if we fail to educate them well.

We need to remind our state leigslators that taking resource out of our classrooms is not an option, and that a $1.4 billion dollar cut proposed by the governor and Senate or even an $800 million dollar cut proposed by the Assembly hurts our communities, schools and children.

Click here to ask your state legislators to meet their obligation to New York’s students.  A forward-looking budget that includes fair funding of schools is the best way to ensure a quality education for our kids. ]]> http://www.edvotersofny.org/tell-albany-no-cuts-to-education-funding/feed/ 0 http://www.edvotersofny.org/be-counted-so-new-yorks-schools-get-their-fair-share/ http://www.edvotersofny.org/be-counted-so-new-yorks-schools-get-their-fair-share/#comments Thu, 01 Apr 2010 14:59:39 +0000 editor http://www.edvotersofny.org/?p=341 Every ten years, as required by the Constitution, the federal government counts the population, and uses that information to determine which areas of the country should get the most federal funding.

Among other things, census data is used to draw legislative districts, allocate money to hospitals, and figure out how to best arrange emergency services and public-works projects.

And just as importantly, census data helps make sure that our schools get the resources and funding they need.

If you haven’t already, please take a moment to fill out your census form.  It’s short, easy, and will play a huge part in determining how our schools are funded for the next ten years!

You can click here for more information about the census, but you’ll need to fill out the form that was sent to your mailing address in the last few weeks.

We all have a part to play in ensuring that all New York’s children get the best education possible.  This is just one small part of the fight, but it’s an important one.  Please make sure to complete and return your census form!

EDUCATION VOTERS OF NEW YORK

Joint Legislative Public Hearings on 2010-2011 Executive Budget Proposal

February 2, 2010

Greetings. Thank you for the opportunity to testify regarding the Governor’s Executive Budget.

New York stands at a crossroads. Our quest to fully provide all students with the resources they need to succeed in school and strengthen our economy and communities is in jeopardy. Instead of getting us back on track to educational equity and excellence, the governor’s proposed budget would unconscionably cut education funding by 5%, the largest school-aid cut in two decades, and delay the phase-in of the constitutionally-mandated Foundation Aid for our underresourced districts and most vulnerable students. In last month’s State of the Union address, President Obama identified a world-class education as the best tool to fight poverty. A quality education is also the most effective means to fight economic stagnation and decline, which impact all New Yorkers.

Education Voters strongly opposes the governor’s reckless cuts and encourages members of the legislature to work towards enacting a strong, sensible budget that sustains our investment in our children and a stronger and more prosperous New York.

While some states are slashing their education budgets and cutting school staff and other essential resources, others are maintaining an even keel. Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick, for one, realizes that an investment in education today will produce great dividends tomorrow. While he has proposed cuts to most state programs, a series of proposed tax revenue initiatives will help maintain education spending at last year’s level. Like New York, his state is grappling with overwhelming fiscal hardship, but its leadership is protecting education funding in order to maintain Massachusetts’ standing as a national model for educational excellence. New York must show the same resolve.

Governor Paterson is attempting to portray education cuts as fiscally sound practice, but we all know that wise investments are the hallmarks of fiscal responsibility. There is no smarter investment than our children’s future. By fulfilling the state’s constitutional obligation to uphold our children’s educational rights, members of the legislature are fulfilling their fiscal responsibility by refusing to gamble away New Yorkers’ tax dollars and future with shortsighted funding cuts.

The Executive Budget errs on two major counts. First, the governor’s proposal would directly result in the loss of essential educational resources, including teachers, staff, and programs. New York children should not have to choose between an art teacher and an English teacher, or between a guidance counselor to help guide them along the path to college or a supportive and enriching after-school program that keeps them on the path to academic and life success. And yet, these are precisely the choices the governor is asking our children to make.

Second, the governor’s proposal would roll back the clock on educational equity and justice. In 2007, the legislature made a valiant and wise stand to ensure all children their constitutional right under CFE by providing the court-mandated funding increases. Due to the subsequent extension of the Foundation Aid phase-in from four to seven years, three additional cohorts of students—hundreds of thousands of New York children—will be deprived of the educational opportunities to which they are entitled. Now, the governor’s budget would extend the phase-in to 10 years, representing six years of denied constitutional rights and millions of students robbed of the basic resources they need to achieve their full potential. Constitutional rights cannot be simply tossed aside or continually delayed, even in tough economic times. Moreover, New York can ill afford to waste even one iota of human potential. We cannot continue to place hundreds of thousands of our least advantaged students in the discard pile; further delays in implementing Foundation Aid would do just that. Yet, with bold leadership and creative budgeting and policymaking, the legislature can ensure that our schools not only weather the economic storm but are equipped with the resources needed to fully develop New York’s most valuable resource—its human capital.

In light of the current budget constraints, Education Voters urges the legislature to reduce spending by identifying and supporting cost-saving measures, enact revenue enhancers, and explore where and how federal stimulus money is being used. We encourage the legislature to explore the regionalization of procurement and other services, develop a plan to consolidate school districts, build and renovate school buildings to make them more efficient, and pressure the Executive and the Division of Budget to reexamine the distribution and use of federal stimulus funding. We recognize that closing the budget gap is no easy task, but let it not be said that when faced with great challenges, our legislature folded on our young people.

Funding is no panacea for our educational challenges. It must be accompanied by sound education reform, and we should constantly seek innovative policies and practices to allocate funding more effectively in order to maximize student achievement. However, adequate funding is the baseline. You courageously stood up to the governor to stave off midyear cuts. Together we won that battle, but now New York’s children are counting on you to go the distance and win the war for high quality educational opportunities for all. Sustaining the state’s investment in our children is not only the moral, constitutional, and economically sound choice—if you stand by New York’s children today, your constituents—current and future—will stand by you.

On behalf of New York’s children, we ask you to avoid following the governor’s path to educational inequity and economic stagnation that would result from funding cuts and further Foundation Aid delays. Instead of balancing the budget on the backs of our children, we urge you to blaze a more sensible trail—one that leads to educational excellence and collective prosperity. New Yorkers are counting on you to shield our children from harm and safeguard their futures as we weather the economic crisis.

Thank you again for your leadership. We look forward to working with you to develop and pass a budget that puts children first.

Equity Symposium Asks: Where Is $100 Billion in Education Aid Going?

States Are Using Education Stimulus Money for Budget Gaps Instead of Equity, Teachers College Study Suggests

States are using federal stimulus money intended to promote innovation and equity reforms in schools to instead plug holes in education budgets ravaged by the economic recession.

That’s the finding of at least one major study that will be presented at “Stimulating Equity? The Impact of the Federal Stimulus Act on Educational Opportunity,” a symposium that will be held at Teachers College, Columbia University on February 8th and 9th.

The event convened by the College’s Campaign for Educational Equity, is the first major national symposium to analyze the impact of The American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA), which is enabling the U.S. Department of Education to distribute $100 billion to states over the next two years for public schools suffering from the effects of the recession.

The symposium will discuss whether this windfall of federal cash – more than double the Department’s 2009 budget – will improve equity and opportunity for low-income students.

Click here to read more.

For Immediate Release

Parents and Advocates Protest Governor’s $1.4 Billion Cut to Schools On Top of The Broken CFE Promise

Deliver Over 1000 Broken Pencils to Governor Symbolizing Broken CFE Promise

(Albany, NY) The Alliance for Quality Education (AQE), the Campaign for Fiscal Equity (CFE), Citizen Action of New York (CANY), New York City Coalition for Educational Justice (NY-CEJ), and Education Voters of New York called Governor Paterson’s 2010 executive budget a colossal step in the wrong direction. The governor’s budget proposal would slash $1.4 billion in funding from schools and stretch the original four-year CFE phase-in to ten years. This cut is the biggest cut proposal to education in the history of the state of New York. These cuts come on top of the state’s failure to deliver any of the promised CFE funding for the current year.

“Today in 2010, we know that preparing all students for success in college and their career is the educational justice issue of our day, and the Coalition for Educational Justice has a clear proposal for redesigning and expanding the school day that would bring our school system to the 21st century. With the Governor proposing the biggest cut in our state’s history, we would be taking a huge step backwards, that will not only be more expensive later down the road but would instantly hurt our children across the state,” said Gail Gadsden, Parent leader with AQE and CEJ.

“The Governor’s budget would make a record funding cut to our schools.  The Governor has called for a 21st Century knowledge-based economy, which we need, but these cuts would push knowledge to the back of the class.  $1.4 billion in cuts will mean larger class sizes, less programs to get students prepared for college, cutbacks in the arts. The legislature must say no and we are confident they will say no,” said Billy Easton, Executive Director, AQE.

“In 2007, the governor and legislature set out a four year plan to remedy the insufficient and inequitably distributed education resources and provide for the constitutional right to a sound basic education. Instead of making good on that original IOU to our children that was to be paid in full this year, Governor Paterson proposes $1.4 billion dollars in cuts to schools this year and stretching out fulfilling the Campaign for Fiscal Equity promise to 10 years.  This means six more years of insufficient resources which will fall most heavily on the neediest schools and students.  The increase in school spending referred to by the Governor was catch-up money to begin to address chronic deficiencies.  In New York City alone, the sad facts show:  254,603 students attend a school identified as low-performing by the state.  That’s more students than the Houston School District enrolls;  215,278 students did not meet ELA and/or Math standards.  That’s more students than the Philadelphia School District enrolls; According to CFE Maxed Out report, 167,274 students attend overcrowded schools designated as low performing by the state.  That’s more than the Dallas School District enrolls; Class sizes are the largest in the state.  On the key classes needed for a NYS Regents diploma: HS students in classes of 34 or more – 21.6% English; 21.2% Math; 23.4% Science and 24.8% Social Science.  Citywide – more than 25% of Kindergarten students are in classes of 25 or more.  In the middle school years – some of the most challenging years of schooling – more than 80% of 6th, 7th and 8th grade students are in classes of 25 or more.  These facts are mirrored throughout the state.  While the Governor cites high per capita spending for students, averages mask the critical truth that New York has one of the largest gaps in the nation in per capita funding between high and low wealth schools.  In 2005-06, the gap was $2576.  Only fulfilling the CFE promise by equitably distributing funds sufficient to provide the instrumentalities of learning will solve this problem.  New York cannot afford this proposal that condemns another generation of students to an inadequate education,” said Helaine Doran, Deputy Director, Campaign for Fiscal Equity.

Last year, the legislature delivered flat-level school aid payments forcing school districts across the state to cut vital teaching positions and proven educational programs. Due to the size of the governor’s proposed cuts, it is expected that this year even more program and teaching positions would be eliminated.

“Yes, we agree with the Governor, these are indeed some of the hardest economic times many of us have ever lived through.   Even before this current fiscal crisis hit, there were far too many barriers to lifting families out of poverty and too many were struggling to make ends meet.  A quality education has been a life line for many but the reality is that the Governor’s proposed budget will take vital resources from the neediest students.   What is lacking in the Governor’s Executive Budget is a plan to not only address the state’s fiscal reality but also to fully address the resources needed to transform the way we educate every child regardless of race, ethnicity or socio-economic background…  If we are going to recover from the failures of Wall Street and prepare a workforce ready for a knowledge based economy, we must reignite the engines of economic prosperity by providing every child with an excellent public school education,” said Glynda C. Carr, Executive Director of Education Voters of New York.

“The Governor’s ‘Recovery Budget fails to provide the most important ingredient for economic recovery – investment in New Yorkers.  School cuts are not only a huge step backward for our kids — they will also drive our economy even further down. Our children can’t wait ten years for a quality education, and our state can’t afford the economic impact of layoffs and failing schools,” said Karen Scharff, Executive Director, Citizen Action of New York.

AQE has previously endorsed a set of cost savings and revenue alternatives which include; an elimination of the Empire Zone program, bulk purchasing of prescription drugs, and energy saving programs in schools and state agencies. After a full review of the governor’s proposed budget as well as his cost savings package, AQE will issue a new set of cost saving revenue options for the 2010 budget in the coming weeks and call on the legislature to adopt them.

The press conference was one of five press events being held simultaneously across the state including; Buffalo Rochester, Syracuse, Albany and Long Island. In Albany over a thousand broken pencils symbolizing the state’s broken CFE promise to school children were delivered to the governor’s office.

Broken pencils used to protest Paterson education cuts

Posted: Jan 20, 2010 05:53 PM

ALBANY, N.Y. — Advocates dumped thousands of broken pencils during a press conference in Albany’s Legislative Office Building on Wednesday in a protest over Governor Paterson’s plan to cut more than a billion dollars from education in next year’s budget.

The demonstrators said the damaged pencils symbolize the broken promises to children.

The Governor says, in this economy everyone needs to make sacrifices, and New York spends 60% above the national average on each student.

But advocates say children shouldn’t suffer.

“It’s unacceptable in the downturn in the economy that we don’t invest in our future,” said Glynda Carr of Education Voters of New York.

Click here to read the full article.

We look forward to gathering this group again with the addition of participants from across the city when we reveal the outcome of the dialogues in our Citizen’s Blueprint in 2010.

But Governor Paterson is withholding 10% of school funding in his effort to fix the state’s budget. Call Governor Paterson today at 518-474-8390 and tell him that holding our kids hostage is never an option.

The legislature has already rejected the governor’s original plan to cut $686 million from classrooms across the state. Those cuts would have been devastating, eliminating programs and faculty in the middle of the school year.

Over the last month, New Yorkers like you have taken action, and given our elected officials the political will to stand up and reject the governor’s plan. You made phone calls, you emailed the governor, and you sent faxes to your state senator and assembly member. You sent a clear message that cutting school funding is not the right answer to the state’s budget shortfall.

But the work is not over. Governor Paterson is now planning to delay funding to school districts. Education Voters will keep up the fight to ensure that the funds needed to keep our schools open are delivered to local school districts and classrooms. We need your help.

Call the governor today at 518-474-8390 and tell him to send funds to our schools on time and in full. Now is not the time to be holding back on our kids.