Led by Assembly Education Committee Chair Catherine Nolan and Senator Kevin Parker, 80 legislators wrote to Governor Cuomo today, the day before his State of the State address, to call on him to fully fund our public education system so that every child, regardless of the school district they live in, can have a quality education.
This year, education experts and legislators are calling for a $2.2 billion increase in education funding, with a focus on high needs school districts. Investment in community schools, and a full-day universal pre-K program were also noted as key to providing an education for every child that will lead to successful communities.
Governor Cuomo has been critical of calls for more funding, saying that money just goes to more bureaucracy. But Citizen Action’s community organizers are working with hundreds of parents, students and teachers who cite lack of resources like books, huge class sizes, not enough teachers and faculty, and cuts to programs that their kids really need, like after-school and foreign language classes. Those are problems that children are facing every day – and they cost money to fix.
But instead of focusing on this resource problem, Governor Cuomo’s rhetoric about education has been focused on exactly what his billionaire campaign contributors want: the privatization of our public education system. He’s talking about more charter schools when the cap isn’t even yet reached. It’s a radical agenda that the billionaires behind the so-called “education reform” effort have been pushing.
For New York’s students, it seems like Governor Cuomo’s State of the State, which he’s calling his “Opportunity Agenda,” is more like a missed opportunity to do something about the real resource problem facing schools.
Below are photos from today’s event, which was organized by our friends at the Alliance for Quality Education, as well as the letters to Governor Cuomo.