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The Fight For Full School Funding; Queens Edition
At Queens Borough Hall in Kew Gardens, Thursday night, public school advocates, parents, principals and politicians gathered to support the school spending plan proposed by Gov. Eliot Spitzer. The meeting, sponsored by the Alliance for Quality Education, the NAACP, the UFT and New Yorkers For Smaller Classes, featured AQE director Billy Easton and Campaign for Fiscal Equity dirctor Geri Palast who have been at so many meeting together they finish each others sentences.
The task at hand: focus the crowd to pressure Queens GOP Senators Maltese and Padavan to support the Spitzer scheme (which I'll describe below).
The key issue: class size. I think that the reason that Mr. Bloomberg and Mr. Klein don't care about it, and refuse to spend money on it is that they see our children as objects to be processed by the schools not as individuals, each with her or his own needs. Assemby members Nolan and Lancman have introduced a bill to require our Mayor to reduce class size.
The big news: GOP Senator Maltese will support the class size limits. Almost losing his re-election, seems to have woken him up. Senator Padavan is rumored to be supporting the class size intitiative as well.
Other news: a strong hint from Senator Malcolm Smith that a deal is in the works on health care.
What can you do: call and write Senators Padavan and Maltese and other NYC GOP State Senators. On St. Patrick's Day, March 17, join the carvan to visit their offices. For information on how to do all this call the Alliance for Quality Education at 718-222-1089 or email them: nycinfo@aceny.org. Send an email to your State Senator .
Some Highlights of the Spitzer Plan*$3.4 Billion increase for NYC schools over 4 years -- to be matched by $2.2 Billion in NY City funds. (with a somewhat larger amount for other school districts around NY State.)
*A new needs-driven funding formula which would, for the first time provice money for districts which needed it. At present, NYS money has been allocated by a strict-politically-bargained-for formula under which NYC gets 38.8% of state aid regardless of need. (To give you a sense of how this concept strikes Republicans, consider Joe Bruno's characterization of it "class warfare," -- even though no school district, not even the richest, would lose money under the Spitzer plan.
*Specific limits on what the new cash could be spent no (No Mayor Bloomberg, no no-bid consultants, no $80 million computer systems). Class size reduction, all day pre-k, more time on task (extended school day/year), teacher training and middle/high school reorganization.
*Some public/parent participation in the planning process. At present, parents, teachers, principals and the public are completely locked out while Mr. Bloomberg. Mr. Klein and their privatizers play 52-pick-up with the schools.
I'm planning to cross-post this essay at < a href="http://www.nycpublicschoolparents.blogspot.com"> NYC Public School Parents a new blog for those of us obsessed. If you've made it this far, check it out.
Maltese good news/bad news
I was at the Queens meeting last night, and was fascinated by the number of politicians who said very little and took a very long time saying it. However, the point of the meeting, as stated above, was to get people to lobby the two Queens Republican Senators.
The Democratic minority in the Senate is unified (would the same were true of the Democratic majority in Congress), so if we can get two Repubicans to "jump ship" we'll get our education budget.
Now, as regards Serph Maltese:
First the bad news: About a year ago, he was addressing a civic organization and claimed that outside of Washington, DC, our fair city spent more per child on education than any district in the country. This bald-faced lie (the surrounding counties all spend more than NYC) is an example of the lengths to which he has been willing to go in order to put his partisan party politics above the people he supposedly represents.
Now the good news: Last November, Maltese almost lost his job! He's running scared, and may be willing to do whatever it takes to garner votes.
Education is important to everyone, not just people with children (and the children themselves). Ask any real estate broker what the top question potential buyers ask -- it's, "How are the schools?" A commitment to good education results in better neighborhoods, more jobs, cleaner and safer streets -- all the benefits that everyone wants.
When people call education the "magic bullet," remember that the magic works for everyone. If you have a Republican state senator, if you know someone who has a Republican senator -- call the senator's office (contact info available on the State Senate website).
Do you remember when I waved & said Hi when I came in?
If the specter of defeat causes Maltese and Padavan to straighten up and fly right, I'm thrilled. I'm told, but have not yet seen it, that the Senate and Assembly budget "one-house" bills may not be -- at least on education -- miles apart. Has anyone seen them yet?