TESTIMONY BY GLYNDA C. CARR, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF
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.
This entry was posted in News. Bookmark the permalink. Both comments and trackbacks are currently closed.
TESTIMONY BY GLYNDA C. CARR, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF
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.