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Activists see gains in BOCES funding trends
March 31, 2005 Rensselaer-Columbia-Greene BOCES TA President Mary Yonkers meets with Assemblyman Patrick Manning, R-Dutchess. Attorney Susan DiDonato looks on. Educators are not out of the drifts yet, but there are signs of a thaw. Seven days before activists from NYSUT's Committee of 100 descended on the state Capitol March 15 to seek support for public education, BOCES educators were battling a winter storm to get to Albany and meet with lawmakers to make the case for funding restorations from cuts in Gov. Pataki's executive budget proposal. By the time many of the BOCES activists returned a week later under sunny skies to take part in New York State United Teachers' Committee of 100, the problems they were facing from Albany — and Washington, D.C. — seemed to be disappearing as fast as the late-winter snow that had blanketed the capital city. Just days after the NYSUT-supported BOCES Lobby Day, members of both houses of the Legislature began to make good on promises they had given March 8 to the BOCES lobbyists-for-a-day that included teachers, administrators, support staff, parents and students. Lawmakers began passing a series of budget bills and resolutions that included restoration of $20 million in BOCES aid the governor had sought to cut, and continuing aid to school districts for so-called routine administrative services from BOCES. Meanwhile, on March 11, the U.S. Senate rejected President Bush's effort to eliminate the federal program that provides New York state high schools and community colleges more than $65 million Career and Technical Education programs — many of them provided by BOCES. In his budget, Bush had proposed killing the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Improvement Act and diverting its $1.3 billion in funding to expand the No Child Left Behind Act into high schools. Shortly after Committee of 100, the House passed a similar bill to provide continued Perkins funding. A House-Senate committee is now working to iron out differences in the two bills. "What a difference a week makes," said Sandie Carner-Shafran, a member of the Saratoga-Adirondack BOCES Employees Association who serves on NYSUT's Board of Directors. Like Carner-Shafran, Vito Rinaldo of Putnam/Northern Westchester BOCES had attended both of the Albany sessions to promote BOCES issues and thank lawmakers for past support. "We're not out of the woods yet, but it's the best news we've had in awhile," said Rinaldo, a member of the United Staff Association and chairman of NYSUT's BOCES Statewide Committee. The state's 37 Boards of Cooperative Educational Services provide participating school districts with programs and services they would not be able to offer cost-effectively by themselves. — John Strachan |
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