Freedom copyright 2011 Michael Raucci
Freedoms fought for, Freedoms gained.
Soldiers lost, Soldiers maimed.
Heroes welcomed, proud flags fly.
Fathers mourn, mothers cry.
Freedoms challenged, Freedoms lost.
Pols excuse, "Freedoms cost."
Deals are done, debts are paid.
And on an altar Freedoms laid
Thursday, August 4, 2011
The Death of Love
The Death of Love copyright 2011 Michael Raucci
From Life's sharpened bloody thorns
A Lover's heart is bruised and torn
The sanguine pool of dark despair
Reflects a soul beyond repair
Once hearts entwined, entangled fate
Now separated by Death's cold slate
One still beats for love, forlorn
The other takes its last sojourn
Will time heal the living wound
Of Lovers separated by death too soon
Or will the One left bereft
Waste in sorrow and wait for Death.
From Life's sharpened bloody thorns
A Lover's heart is bruised and torn
The sanguine pool of dark despair
Reflects a soul beyond repair
Once hearts entwined, entangled fate
Now separated by Death's cold slate
One still beats for love, forlorn
The other takes its last sojourn
Will time heal the living wound
Of Lovers separated by death too soon
Or will the One left bereft
Waste in sorrow and wait for Death.
Sunday, June 12, 2011
State Budget Problems and Mismanagement Drown Local School Districts
Will Intelligence and Integrity Prevail Over Avarice and Myopia?
Michael Raucci
The following is a two part editorial dealing with education funding; first at the state level and second at the local level, specifically in Pine Bush, New York.
Part 1: The State
School districts across the state of New York have, over the past several months, have been engaged in the daunting task of creating a budget which on one hand doesn’t have a negative impact on education but on the other hand doesn’t overburden already cash poor and tax weary property owners. This has not been a typical year of school budget wrangling primarily because years of poor fiscal management and a lack of foresight at the state level has led to a 10 billion dollar shortfall in projected state funds. Newly elected governor, Andrew Cuomo, has opted to make up the difference by slashing state funded programs, primarily targeting public school aid and Medicaid, the fattest parts of the state budget. He has also vowed to not create any new or raise any existing taxes in this budget balancing maelstrom.
Governor Cuomo and the New York legislator are currently making well intentioned but short-sighted decisions which could lead to the shortchanging of an entire generation of students, the global devaluation of the United States and because for some politicians it’s the only thing that might stir their emotions, the staining of current leaders future political legacies. They are indiscriminately slashing education funding without taking full account of the future implications (which ultimately are disastrous) of this expedient solution to the state’s fiscal problems.
It is my opinion that Mr. Cuomo’s approach to a budget resolution has been hackneyed and blunt when precise analysis and surgical precision were called for. His administration has coined the termed ‘gap elimination’ as a way of disguising cuts to school aid, cuts which are not based upon substantive analysis of their impact and which are primarily being shouldered by the poorer districts in the state. Were these substantial reductions necessary? The answer is a resounding, “No.” It is only because of the fiduciary mismanagment of prior elected officials and the fact that Governor Cuomo and the state legislator are allowing a currently existing tax on millionaires to expire that these Draconian cuts become necessary. Were the tax on millionaires to remain, much of the pain associated with balancing the budget would be assuaged. Why would Mr. Cuomo, a lifetime Democrat, allow this to happen? The answer beckons back to the summer prior to his election when it looked like Republican Carl Paladino seemed to be gaining traction with beleaguered taxpayers, and in response, then candidate Cuomo pledged to not raise any taxes if elected. Recalling the politically disastrous effect, reversing a similar pledge had on former President George H.W. Bush, Cuomo had no choice other than to follow through. Had Cuomo known at the time that Paladino would eventually commit political suicide by ostracizing major voting blocks with vitriolic comments, such a pledge would have been unnecessary and would have given him more options as he attempted to balance the budget for 2011-2012. Still, Cuomo’s decision seems devilishly influenced, as it puts his own political life ahead of those to whom he has sworn to serve. By using the term ‘gap elimination’, Mr. Cuomo passes the buck (or fails to – pun intended) to local school boards and taxpayers thus redirecting the ire of taxpayers away from state officials.
In the process of developing the details of their somewhat reckless budget, the governor and some legislators embarked on a smoke and mirrors blame campaign for the budgetary problems. In an attempt to transfer much of the blame, Governor Cuomo, and politicians across the country have created scapegoats in the form of teachers, school administrators, school boards and unions. These politicians have effectively shifted the dialogue away from their fiscal irresponsibility to the aforementioned groups, citing lackluster performance on standardized examinations when compared to other countries as proof of their ineptitude as a whole, when such a comparison creates a grossly inaccurate representation of true knowledge and performance given the great variability in how these tests are administered and perceived in the various countries. Somehow, the effigy of an economy soured and nearly bankrupted by greedy bankers and brokerage houses and left unchecked by self-motivated and unfocused politicians has been left at the feet of educators who have been portrayed as ineffective , self-centered thugs who raid state coffers for their own enrichment while the children they are meant to lead drown in a sea of mediocrity. So now politicians are loudly calling for accountability amongst educators and they are publicly attacking tenure, educator salaries and benefits, and implied bloated administration and bureaucracy. - (Wisconsin’s governor and Republican controlled legislator have gone so far as to denude unions’ collective bargaining rights.).
How could the citizens of New York State allow this kind of political demagoguery and propagandist manipulation to go unchecked? Perhaps, because they don’t have all the information or because they don’t want to know all the information. They are weary; weary of politics, weary of politicians, weary of wasteful spending, and weary of the rhetoric. The public has become inculcated to the stagnation and misdealings of Albany and recalcitrant to the idea that it could or will ever change. Ironically, it is this ubiquitous trance created by years of political ineptitude that has resulted in an Ethos of collective vulnerability to sensibility as people across the state seem to be willing to dismiss the sins and misgivings of politicians and Wall Street gluttons to leap onto the misguided bandwagon of teacher bashing.
If politicians are successful in shielding the general public from the true purveyors of fiscal irresponsibility and the state and national discussion focuses instead on American students’ test scores then the manner in which teachers teach and students learn will unfortunately turn from critical thinking and analysis to those very superficial things which are easily assessed; didactic thought and associative regurgitation as we steer towards becoming a nation in decline.
Part 2: The School District
In part one of this editorial I examined the reasons for the current budgetary crisis and I explained how the state and politicians have shifted the social discourse away from their fiscal irresponsibility to perceived educational mediocrity. In part two, I will look at Pine Bush Schools, a district which encompasses 7 townships in 3 counties to see how it has handled the devastating cuts in state aid and the rising criticism from politicians.
Pine Bush Schools and taxpayers represent one of the hardest hit districts in New York State, losing nearly 16% of their funding due to an imperfect state appropriation formula and Mr. Cuomo’s “gap elimination” program which unfairly burdens poor districts and rural middle class districts, particularly, those with little to no commercial or industrial tax base like Pine Bush. The predictions for Pine Bush have been dire from the outset, with Superintendent Philip Steinberg predicting 2011-2012 layoffs in the district to be between 40 and 140 for the coming school year. This would of course be on top of the massive cuts endured over the past two years. Were there problems with overstaffing? Probably, but most programs and staff had already been cut to the bone in 2009-2010 and 2010-2011. Where did these numbers come from and how could a school district survive so many layoffs? The high end numbers came from the possibility of the implementation of Mr. Cuomo’s 2% property tax cap proposal. That tax cap has been shelved until next year but its prospect looms large over this rural district that cut to the bone last year and will be cutting into the bone this coming year.
Pine Bush will endure massive program cuts, reallocation of funds, severe reductions in elective courses and in after school programs and sports. Every student and every program will be affected in some negative way. In an unfair irony, Pine Bush is not paying the price for its own fiscal irresponsibility, in fact, Pine Bush ranks near the lowest in Orange County in per pupil expenditures at $9101.00. It is paying the price for Albany’s years of ineptitude.
But Pine Bush officials, teachers, students, parents and community members are banding together to make the best of a state budget that unfairly overburdens them. Last year when modified sports had to be cut from the budget parents, teachers and students raised approximately $100,000 to pay for the sports programs. This year with teachers again looking at significant layoffs, the teachers union proposed and authorized a give back of approximately $375,000 to the district and educators are scrambling to reorganize programs so as to minimize the academic damage created by the loss of funds. The school board and superintendent have been charged with the dual responsibility of creating a robust and effective instructional program while at the same time protecting the interests of community taxpayers who must pay for the majority of that program. Given the current situation those two edicts seem to be discordant. How can they create a school budget which doesn’t sacrifice the futures of 6000 children but at the same time doesn’t force property taxes so high that families are foreclosed on and seniors have to choose between eating, buying needed medications and paying their school taxes? The board and administrators with the help of teachers has created a budget which represents a .13% decrease from the prior year’s budget despite inflation and contractual increases. Because of reduced state aid, however, a 5.99% increase in the tax levy will be required in order to implement this budget.
In the end, no one in Pine Bush will be satisfied. Administrators and Board members cannot fund and implement the type of instructional programs they would like to, teachers are being asked to do more with less supplies and assistance for more kids and for less money, parents realize that the reduced services in the schools could potentially put their children at a disadvantage in the future, and taxpayers are being asked to shoulder a hefty tax increase during economically demanding times. There are no winners in the 2011-2012 school budget debate and creation, but Pine Bush by collaborating and sacrificing as a united community is ensuring that there will be no losers either. Pine Bush Schools has taken the high road, and in doing so, they have adhered to their principle mission as educators and taught their kids that winning is not necessarily getting what one wants or what one deserves but persevering when times are tough without compromising one’s integrity.
So kudos to Pine Bush for finding a way to cooperate when things became difficult, for not devouring one another in a potential eat or be eaten scenario, for putting aside differences in order to create an environment that despite possibly lacking some of the educational options of the past will be robust in the spirit that propels learning for their kids and exemplifies the best of humanity. And shame on elected officials for not doing their due diligence when it came to extrapolating the impact of their education cuts, for balancing the budget on the backs of children and the poor, while giving tax breaks to the wealthy, and for illegitimately scapegoating educators and fostering divisiveness within the general public as a method of reflecting blame for the current economy away from themselves and their cronies.
Next year in Pine Bush, there won’t be enough computers, students will learn on software that is obsolete, there won’t be enough teachers, classrooms and labs will be overfilled to the point that safety concerns will arise, there won’t be enough teachers or aides to provide all the necessary courses or supervision, athletics and sports teams will be significantly tapered, after school programs will be nearly non-existent, and students will walk farther to their bus stops. Guidance counselors will fill the shoes of psychologists and teachers will buy supplies from their own pockets. Despite all this, Pine Bush teachers will teach to the best of their ability given the circumstances at hand and Pine Bush students will learn; because the educational community and the local community of Pine Bush are committed to their children and believe that education is the most valuable gift that can be given and that it is the salvation for children that want to dream big and be successful and it is the foundation for communities and countries that wish to prosper in the future.
Perhaps out of this crucible of educational teeth gnashing and blood-letting, schools like Pine Bush will rise like a Phoenix, reinventing themselves, education, and how learning takes place in the 21st century. Pine Bush has developed the mentality and fortitude that could allow that to happen. The big question is, “Can such a transformation take place as educational spending dwindles, as our political leaders mismanage the government and its finances, and as the causes of our current sour economy and state and national failings are not properly vetted and the truly complicit individuals or groups are not held accountable?”
Note: Since writing this the Pine Bush community passed the school budget which featured a 5.99% tax levy increase, substantial reductions in extracurriciluar activities, including sports, reduced educational offerings, and staff reductions approximating 50 people.
Michael Raucci
The following is a two part editorial dealing with education funding; first at the state level and second at the local level, specifically in Pine Bush, New York.
Part 1: The State
School districts across the state of New York have, over the past several months, have been engaged in the daunting task of creating a budget which on one hand doesn’t have a negative impact on education but on the other hand doesn’t overburden already cash poor and tax weary property owners. This has not been a typical year of school budget wrangling primarily because years of poor fiscal management and a lack of foresight at the state level has led to a 10 billion dollar shortfall in projected state funds. Newly elected governor, Andrew Cuomo, has opted to make up the difference by slashing state funded programs, primarily targeting public school aid and Medicaid, the fattest parts of the state budget. He has also vowed to not create any new or raise any existing taxes in this budget balancing maelstrom.
Governor Cuomo and the New York legislator are currently making well intentioned but short-sighted decisions which could lead to the shortchanging of an entire generation of students, the global devaluation of the United States and because for some politicians it’s the only thing that might stir their emotions, the staining of current leaders future political legacies. They are indiscriminately slashing education funding without taking full account of the future implications (which ultimately are disastrous) of this expedient solution to the state’s fiscal problems.
It is my opinion that Mr. Cuomo’s approach to a budget resolution has been hackneyed and blunt when precise analysis and surgical precision were called for. His administration has coined the termed ‘gap elimination’ as a way of disguising cuts to school aid, cuts which are not based upon substantive analysis of their impact and which are primarily being shouldered by the poorer districts in the state. Were these substantial reductions necessary? The answer is a resounding, “No.” It is only because of the fiduciary mismanagment of prior elected officials and the fact that Governor Cuomo and the state legislator are allowing a currently existing tax on millionaires to expire that these Draconian cuts become necessary. Were the tax on millionaires to remain, much of the pain associated with balancing the budget would be assuaged. Why would Mr. Cuomo, a lifetime Democrat, allow this to happen? The answer beckons back to the summer prior to his election when it looked like Republican Carl Paladino seemed to be gaining traction with beleaguered taxpayers, and in response, then candidate Cuomo pledged to not raise any taxes if elected. Recalling the politically disastrous effect, reversing a similar pledge had on former President George H.W. Bush, Cuomo had no choice other than to follow through. Had Cuomo known at the time that Paladino would eventually commit political suicide by ostracizing major voting blocks with vitriolic comments, such a pledge would have been unnecessary and would have given him more options as he attempted to balance the budget for 2011-2012. Still, Cuomo’s decision seems devilishly influenced, as it puts his own political life ahead of those to whom he has sworn to serve. By using the term ‘gap elimination’, Mr. Cuomo passes the buck (or fails to – pun intended) to local school boards and taxpayers thus redirecting the ire of taxpayers away from state officials.
In the process of developing the details of their somewhat reckless budget, the governor and some legislators embarked on a smoke and mirrors blame campaign for the budgetary problems. In an attempt to transfer much of the blame, Governor Cuomo, and politicians across the country have created scapegoats in the form of teachers, school administrators, school boards and unions. These politicians have effectively shifted the dialogue away from their fiscal irresponsibility to the aforementioned groups, citing lackluster performance on standardized examinations when compared to other countries as proof of their ineptitude as a whole, when such a comparison creates a grossly inaccurate representation of true knowledge and performance given the great variability in how these tests are administered and perceived in the various countries. Somehow, the effigy of an economy soured and nearly bankrupted by greedy bankers and brokerage houses and left unchecked by self-motivated and unfocused politicians has been left at the feet of educators who have been portrayed as ineffective , self-centered thugs who raid state coffers for their own enrichment while the children they are meant to lead drown in a sea of mediocrity. So now politicians are loudly calling for accountability amongst educators and they are publicly attacking tenure, educator salaries and benefits, and implied bloated administration and bureaucracy. - (Wisconsin’s governor and Republican controlled legislator have gone so far as to denude unions’ collective bargaining rights.).
How could the citizens of New York State allow this kind of political demagoguery and propagandist manipulation to go unchecked? Perhaps, because they don’t have all the information or because they don’t want to know all the information. They are weary; weary of politics, weary of politicians, weary of wasteful spending, and weary of the rhetoric. The public has become inculcated to the stagnation and misdealings of Albany and recalcitrant to the idea that it could or will ever change. Ironically, it is this ubiquitous trance created by years of political ineptitude that has resulted in an Ethos of collective vulnerability to sensibility as people across the state seem to be willing to dismiss the sins and misgivings of politicians and Wall Street gluttons to leap onto the misguided bandwagon of teacher bashing.
If politicians are successful in shielding the general public from the true purveyors of fiscal irresponsibility and the state and national discussion focuses instead on American students’ test scores then the manner in which teachers teach and students learn will unfortunately turn from critical thinking and analysis to those very superficial things which are easily assessed; didactic thought and associative regurgitation as we steer towards becoming a nation in decline.
Part 2: The School District
In part one of this editorial I examined the reasons for the current budgetary crisis and I explained how the state and politicians have shifted the social discourse away from their fiscal irresponsibility to perceived educational mediocrity. In part two, I will look at Pine Bush Schools, a district which encompasses 7 townships in 3 counties to see how it has handled the devastating cuts in state aid and the rising criticism from politicians.
Pine Bush Schools and taxpayers represent one of the hardest hit districts in New York State, losing nearly 16% of their funding due to an imperfect state appropriation formula and Mr. Cuomo’s “gap elimination” program which unfairly burdens poor districts and rural middle class districts, particularly, those with little to no commercial or industrial tax base like Pine Bush. The predictions for Pine Bush have been dire from the outset, with Superintendent Philip Steinberg predicting 2011-2012 layoffs in the district to be between 40 and 140 for the coming school year. This would of course be on top of the massive cuts endured over the past two years. Were there problems with overstaffing? Probably, but most programs and staff had already been cut to the bone in 2009-2010 and 2010-2011. Where did these numbers come from and how could a school district survive so many layoffs? The high end numbers came from the possibility of the implementation of Mr. Cuomo’s 2% property tax cap proposal. That tax cap has been shelved until next year but its prospect looms large over this rural district that cut to the bone last year and will be cutting into the bone this coming year.
Pine Bush will endure massive program cuts, reallocation of funds, severe reductions in elective courses and in after school programs and sports. Every student and every program will be affected in some negative way. In an unfair irony, Pine Bush is not paying the price for its own fiscal irresponsibility, in fact, Pine Bush ranks near the lowest in Orange County in per pupil expenditures at $9101.00. It is paying the price for Albany’s years of ineptitude.
But Pine Bush officials, teachers, students, parents and community members are banding together to make the best of a state budget that unfairly overburdens them. Last year when modified sports had to be cut from the budget parents, teachers and students raised approximately $100,000 to pay for the sports programs. This year with teachers again looking at significant layoffs, the teachers union proposed and authorized a give back of approximately $375,000 to the district and educators are scrambling to reorganize programs so as to minimize the academic damage created by the loss of funds. The school board and superintendent have been charged with the dual responsibility of creating a robust and effective instructional program while at the same time protecting the interests of community taxpayers who must pay for the majority of that program. Given the current situation those two edicts seem to be discordant. How can they create a school budget which doesn’t sacrifice the futures of 6000 children but at the same time doesn’t force property taxes so high that families are foreclosed on and seniors have to choose between eating, buying needed medications and paying their school taxes? The board and administrators with the help of teachers has created a budget which represents a .13% decrease from the prior year’s budget despite inflation and contractual increases. Because of reduced state aid, however, a 5.99% increase in the tax levy will be required in order to implement this budget.
In the end, no one in Pine Bush will be satisfied. Administrators and Board members cannot fund and implement the type of instructional programs they would like to, teachers are being asked to do more with less supplies and assistance for more kids and for less money, parents realize that the reduced services in the schools could potentially put their children at a disadvantage in the future, and taxpayers are being asked to shoulder a hefty tax increase during economically demanding times. There are no winners in the 2011-2012 school budget debate and creation, but Pine Bush by collaborating and sacrificing as a united community is ensuring that there will be no losers either. Pine Bush Schools has taken the high road, and in doing so, they have adhered to their principle mission as educators and taught their kids that winning is not necessarily getting what one wants or what one deserves but persevering when times are tough without compromising one’s integrity.
So kudos to Pine Bush for finding a way to cooperate when things became difficult, for not devouring one another in a potential eat or be eaten scenario, for putting aside differences in order to create an environment that despite possibly lacking some of the educational options of the past will be robust in the spirit that propels learning for their kids and exemplifies the best of humanity. And shame on elected officials for not doing their due diligence when it came to extrapolating the impact of their education cuts, for balancing the budget on the backs of children and the poor, while giving tax breaks to the wealthy, and for illegitimately scapegoating educators and fostering divisiveness within the general public as a method of reflecting blame for the current economy away from themselves and their cronies.
Next year in Pine Bush, there won’t be enough computers, students will learn on software that is obsolete, there won’t be enough teachers, classrooms and labs will be overfilled to the point that safety concerns will arise, there won’t be enough teachers or aides to provide all the necessary courses or supervision, athletics and sports teams will be significantly tapered, after school programs will be nearly non-existent, and students will walk farther to their bus stops. Guidance counselors will fill the shoes of psychologists and teachers will buy supplies from their own pockets. Despite all this, Pine Bush teachers will teach to the best of their ability given the circumstances at hand and Pine Bush students will learn; because the educational community and the local community of Pine Bush are committed to their children and believe that education is the most valuable gift that can be given and that it is the salvation for children that want to dream big and be successful and it is the foundation for communities and countries that wish to prosper in the future.
Perhaps out of this crucible of educational teeth gnashing and blood-letting, schools like Pine Bush will rise like a Phoenix, reinventing themselves, education, and how learning takes place in the 21st century. Pine Bush has developed the mentality and fortitude that could allow that to happen. The big question is, “Can such a transformation take place as educational spending dwindles, as our political leaders mismanage the government and its finances, and as the causes of our current sour economy and state and national failings are not properly vetted and the truly complicit individuals or groups are not held accountable?”
Note: Since writing this the Pine Bush community passed the school budget which featured a 5.99% tax levy increase, substantial reductions in extracurriciluar activities, including sports, reduced educational offerings, and staff reductions approximating 50 people.
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Cutting Away at the Future
Cutting Away at the Future .......................................Dr. Michael Raucci
New York is one of the most populated states in the Union. It hosts the most influential financial market in the world, and is home to the United Nations. One would think it would be a bastion of forward minded, level headed thinkers. The current governor, Andrew Cuomo, comes from the Democratic Party, the political party that has long been the stalwart supporters of public education. Despite this, Mr. Cuomo has been using inflammatory rhetoric and a myopic vision of the future to promote his slash and burn agenda for education.
Clearly, New York State and most of the other states are dealing with serious fiscal crises that are the result of decades of abuse, pork, and special interest pandering. That, coupled with the current economic downturn and its subsequent reduction in state revenues has resulted in a perfect storm of budgetary chaos. Mr. Cuomo has been calling for further cuts in education on top of the cuts already instituted during Mr. Patterson’s reign. Local education budgets weren’t without their fat, but all of that and then some has already been cut from budgets over the past 2 years of lean state education funding.
Currently, the United States is ranked 18th out of the 36 industrialized nations in the world in education (http://www.upi.com/Top_News/2008/11/19/US_slipping_in_education_rankings/UPI-90221227104776/). Broken down, we are ranked 14th in reading, 17th in science, and a less than flattering 25th in mathematics (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/12/07/us-falls-in-world-education-rankings_n_793185.html). There are various manners of interpreting these statistics, but the glaring obviate, the so called ‘elephant in the room’ is that as America falls farther and farther behind in education now, there will be a price to pay later. In other words, our failure to improve education now will result in fewer jobs for Americans, less innovation by Americans, and an even more strapped tax revenue system than we currently have. Our future will be built by highly educated, creative, and resourceful individuals around the world. As Mr. Cuomo and politicians across the nation, gut education funding, they guarantee that fewer and fewer of those future innovators will be Americans. America is no longer a nation of industry. We can’t compete with the wages and manpower supplied by the likes of China and India. The United States has, over the past 50 years, changed its workforce into one of innovators and service providers. In essence, we deal in high level technology and high level intelligence, and until now that workforce has been fueled by an elite educational system. We cannot go back to being an industrial nation. It would mean a substantial reduction in living standards for the average person. According to author Michael LeGault, The United States currently has a high demand for engineers but not enough qualified individuals to fill the jobs. This has resulted in many retired engineers being solicited out of retirement in an effort to keep our technology based businesses operating. We must re-establish ourselves as the torch bearers of education, particularly in science and math, if the United States is going to retain those technology based jobs in the future. The alternative is that those jobs and those companies that supply them will emigrate to countries that have an appropriately educated workforce.
The solution to our diminished educational rankings and its associated bleak future for America does not lie in blind education spending cuts. It also does not involve scrapping the current system. The answer is in a reorganization of how schools operate, an assessment of how teachers are taught and implement their trade, a heightening of expectations from Kindergarten all the way through graduate school, and perhaps most importantly, a re-emergence of the family as the primary guiding and positive influence for the education of children.
Further blanket education cuts are a short-sighted solution to a fiscal crisis which will ultimately leave us in even more dire straits twenty years from now. We must look at the big picture. America is in trouble. Medicare is strapped and it’s not because doctors are making too much money off of it, social security is on the road to bankruptcy as the percentage growth of the old continues to outpace that of the young, the ranks of the unemployed have swelled, and Medicaid spending is outpacing its resources. Add to this that our national debt is over 14.7 trillion dollars and is rapidly approaching a level which would make it a greater percentage of our GDP than at any other time in our nation’s history. We have dug ourselves a hole by not anticipating the future. We need to get out of that hole but we need to do so with an eye on where we want to go.
Mr. Cuomo, your cuts may save you face now but they steal our future. Step back, look at the big picture. If you want to solve this state’s fiscal crisis, don’t do it on the backs of our children and at the expense of everyone’s future. You are playing a shell game with money and the losers are the middle and low income taxpayers and school-aged children. By reducing state aid, which comes from progressive taxation programs, you are shifting greater responsibility for shouldering the expenses of education onto local property taxpayers, a regressive taxation system. Despite the fact that most school budgets will reflect less spending, it means that local property taxes must go up in order to account for the funding that Albany is no longer owning up to. The public should not be fooled by Mr. Cuomo’s chicanery. His proposed tax cuts and spending reductions are a cleverly disguised rouse that shift the brunt of school funding to local property taxpayers. In so doing, Albany unjustifiably shifts the blame and public ire off of themselves and onto local schools.
The onus on elected officials is to make changes that matter, not changes that only appear to matter. If you want to implement changes that would really make a difference then start by restructuring the state’s property tax system. It is arcane and was created by a feudal society at a time when there were a relatively sparse number of land owners, most of whom were wealthy. It does not work in today’s world where the majority of New York land owners are middle or low income families, which is why we are constantly trying to implement ineffective correction factors like the equalization rate and the STARS program. Recent calls for a 2% tax cap or a circuit breaker system are proposals that are wrought with future problems and inequity. The only way to equitably fund schools is to redistribute wealth by either taxing consumption or income. If Albany is not up to that task, and granted it is a monumental one, at least relieve school districts from the unfunded mandates that tie their hands to provide costly programs and other expenditures before implementing Draconian cuts. Cutting first but leaving these mandates to be dealt with on another day is imprudent. I am suggesting that Mr. Cuomo and the legislator think before they leap. Analyze the impact of your actions for now and for the future. The hole you are jumping into may be deeper than you think.
New York is one of the most populated states in the Union. It hosts the most influential financial market in the world, and is home to the United Nations. One would think it would be a bastion of forward minded, level headed thinkers. The current governor, Andrew Cuomo, comes from the Democratic Party, the political party that has long been the stalwart supporters of public education. Despite this, Mr. Cuomo has been using inflammatory rhetoric and a myopic vision of the future to promote his slash and burn agenda for education.
Clearly, New York State and most of the other states are dealing with serious fiscal crises that are the result of decades of abuse, pork, and special interest pandering. That, coupled with the current economic downturn and its subsequent reduction in state revenues has resulted in a perfect storm of budgetary chaos. Mr. Cuomo has been calling for further cuts in education on top of the cuts already instituted during Mr. Patterson’s reign. Local education budgets weren’t without their fat, but all of that and then some has already been cut from budgets over the past 2 years of lean state education funding.
Currently, the United States is ranked 18th out of the 36 industrialized nations in the world in education (http://www.upi.com/Top_News/2008/11/19/US_slipping_in_education_rankings/UPI-90221227104776/). Broken down, we are ranked 14th in reading, 17th in science, and a less than flattering 25th in mathematics (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/12/07/us-falls-in-world-education-rankings_n_793185.html). There are various manners of interpreting these statistics, but the glaring obviate, the so called ‘elephant in the room’ is that as America falls farther and farther behind in education now, there will be a price to pay later. In other words, our failure to improve education now will result in fewer jobs for Americans, less innovation by Americans, and an even more strapped tax revenue system than we currently have. Our future will be built by highly educated, creative, and resourceful individuals around the world. As Mr. Cuomo and politicians across the nation, gut education funding, they guarantee that fewer and fewer of those future innovators will be Americans. America is no longer a nation of industry. We can’t compete with the wages and manpower supplied by the likes of China and India. The United States has, over the past 50 years, changed its workforce into one of innovators and service providers. In essence, we deal in high level technology and high level intelligence, and until now that workforce has been fueled by an elite educational system. We cannot go back to being an industrial nation. It would mean a substantial reduction in living standards for the average person. According to author Michael LeGault, The United States currently has a high demand for engineers but not enough qualified individuals to fill the jobs. This has resulted in many retired engineers being solicited out of retirement in an effort to keep our technology based businesses operating. We must re-establish ourselves as the torch bearers of education, particularly in science and math, if the United States is going to retain those technology based jobs in the future. The alternative is that those jobs and those companies that supply them will emigrate to countries that have an appropriately educated workforce.
The solution to our diminished educational rankings and its associated bleak future for America does not lie in blind education spending cuts. It also does not involve scrapping the current system. The answer is in a reorganization of how schools operate, an assessment of how teachers are taught and implement their trade, a heightening of expectations from Kindergarten all the way through graduate school, and perhaps most importantly, a re-emergence of the family as the primary guiding and positive influence for the education of children.
Further blanket education cuts are a short-sighted solution to a fiscal crisis which will ultimately leave us in even more dire straits twenty years from now. We must look at the big picture. America is in trouble. Medicare is strapped and it’s not because doctors are making too much money off of it, social security is on the road to bankruptcy as the percentage growth of the old continues to outpace that of the young, the ranks of the unemployed have swelled, and Medicaid spending is outpacing its resources. Add to this that our national debt is over 14.7 trillion dollars and is rapidly approaching a level which would make it a greater percentage of our GDP than at any other time in our nation’s history. We have dug ourselves a hole by not anticipating the future. We need to get out of that hole but we need to do so with an eye on where we want to go.
Mr. Cuomo, your cuts may save you face now but they steal our future. Step back, look at the big picture. If you want to solve this state’s fiscal crisis, don’t do it on the backs of our children and at the expense of everyone’s future. You are playing a shell game with money and the losers are the middle and low income taxpayers and school-aged children. By reducing state aid, which comes from progressive taxation programs, you are shifting greater responsibility for shouldering the expenses of education onto local property taxpayers, a regressive taxation system. Despite the fact that most school budgets will reflect less spending, it means that local property taxes must go up in order to account for the funding that Albany is no longer owning up to. The public should not be fooled by Mr. Cuomo’s chicanery. His proposed tax cuts and spending reductions are a cleverly disguised rouse that shift the brunt of school funding to local property taxpayers. In so doing, Albany unjustifiably shifts the blame and public ire off of themselves and onto local schools.
The onus on elected officials is to make changes that matter, not changes that only appear to matter. If you want to implement changes that would really make a difference then start by restructuring the state’s property tax system. It is arcane and was created by a feudal society at a time when there were a relatively sparse number of land owners, most of whom were wealthy. It does not work in today’s world where the majority of New York land owners are middle or low income families, which is why we are constantly trying to implement ineffective correction factors like the equalization rate and the STARS program. Recent calls for a 2% tax cap or a circuit breaker system are proposals that are wrought with future problems and inequity. The only way to equitably fund schools is to redistribute wealth by either taxing consumption or income. If Albany is not up to that task, and granted it is a monumental one, at least relieve school districts from the unfunded mandates that tie their hands to provide costly programs and other expenditures before implementing Draconian cuts. Cutting first but leaving these mandates to be dealt with on another day is imprudent. I am suggesting that Mr. Cuomo and the legislator think before they leap. Analyze the impact of your actions for now and for the future. The hole you are jumping into may be deeper than you think.
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