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Parents, educators call for public school support School funding, vouchers are topics at state Black and Puerto Rican Legislators' caucus
March 16, 2006 NYSUT Vice President Maria Neira listens to 6-year-old Corrine Maikels, while Destiny Maikels, 8, looks on. Our children can't wait. That's the message educators, parents and elected officials sent the governor and the Legislature at the state Association of Black and Puerto Rican Legislators' 35th annual legislative conference. "Thousands of our children — too many of them children of color and from low-income families — start out behind and are never given the tools they need to catch up," NYSUT Vice President Maria Neira told the capacity crowd at the caucus' education panel. "Instead of tackling the achievement gap head-on with the kind of resources and creativity that public education needs and that students deserve, the proposed executive budget is dismantling our public schools," Neira said. Her concern about budget proposals to divert tax dollars to private and religious schools was shared by members of the panel, including Randi Weingarten, president of the United Federation of Teachers in New York City , and Syracuse University economist John Yinger. Yinger, a trustee professor of public administration and economics at the Maxwell School , said the STAR property tax rebate program already has produced unintended consequences and inequity among taxpayers. It is unconscionable to propose extensions to STAR while the Campaign for Fiscal Equity decision remains unresolved, Yinger said. A tax credit is not the answer either, he said. "It's very hard to get most people to participate and most of the benefits go to parents who already have kids in private schools." In 2003, a CFE lawsuit led to a ruling by the Court of Appeals that New York 's system of education funding deprived many school children of a "sound, basic education." Last year, a state Supreme Court justice ordered the state to provide more funds for students shortchanged by the funding formula. "We are making progress and steadily improving, but CFE is not about incremental growth," Weingarten said. "The $400 million being set aside for a 'tax credit' could actually solve a real problem now ... like reducing class sizes." With those funds, Weingarten said, the city could build or renovate science labs at middle and high schools or fund all-day pre-kindergarten for every 4-year-old in New York City . The money could also be used to provide programs that used to be standard. Benita Law Diao has to pay for her 10-year-old daughter Cheila to learn a foreign language and play an instrument. "The schools just can't afford to offer it," Law Diao said. "I took Spanish in elementary school. Now I have to pay for my daughter to have access to that. The schools don't have the resources." Given the challenges that public schools already face, Neira said, "It's difficult to understand how diverting hundreds of millions of dollars to a backdoor voucher scheme helps address the achievement gap." Two tax-credit proposals have gained legislative support in Albany and are being backed by a well-organized group of private and religious school leaders (see page 3). The state Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic and Asian Legislative Caucus, which is chaired by Assemblyman Adriano Espaillat, D-Manhattan, issued its own budget analysis rejecting the voucher scheme. John Tillman, a parent and president of the Community District Education Council in New York City , called on all parents to take action to ensure their children get the school funding they deserve. "The theme of this panel is our children can't wait," he said. "Well, our parents can't wait either." — Clarisse Butler Banks |
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