Queens Chronicle - Protested Budget Cuts
March 23, 2008
Dear Editor,
Last Wednesday (March 19th) I attended a rally at City Hall in the pouring rain to demand an end to Mayor Bloomberg's proposed cuts to the public school budgets.
I think it was telling that on the 5th anniversary of the Iraq War that students, parents, teachers, administrators, city council members and concerned citizens were protesting budget cuts to our children's educations.
By most accounts this war is costing our country over $1 billion dollars a week and I have read that when all is said and done the US Treasury will be out between $1.5 to 2 trillion dollars. Thats not to mention the tragic loss of life to our brave military heroes, the NY Times having just reporting that the 4,000th death occurred over the Easter weekend and over 30,000 soldiers have been irreparably injured and maimed.
What does it say of us as a society when we can find the cash for a preemptive, illegal and immoral war based upon lies told by President George W. Bush and his Administration against a sovereign nation that posed absolutely no threat to America, but we cannot fully fund a sound basic education for our children..?
These cuts come at a time when equity seemed to be in sight for New York City's public school students - through the court-ordered increase in funding by the protracted 12 year litigation by the Campaign for Fiscal Equity (CFE) law suit against former Governor Pataki; which he endlessly fought to the detriment of NYC schools - that our Mayor and his Chancellor would slap the children and parents of the City in the face by proposing these draconian budget cuts.
I am pleased to report that most of the Queens members of the City Council were present at the rally. I was especially pleased to see my City Councilman, Joseph P. Addabbo Jr., was present and standing strong with the parents and students of his district. The Council members stated that they would not pass the Mayor's budget unless these funding cuts were reinstated into the Mayor's budget proposal. I applaud their statements and their resolve, now it's up to us to hold them to their words and their rhetoric.
Notably absence from the rally was Queens Councilman Peter Vallone, Jr - a possible Queens Borough President candidate in 2009. I suppose he felt that attending a rally on behalf of our children's educations amounted to additional homework for him which we all know he has repeatedly spoken out against – it was a major disappointment.
Another person absent from the rally was Chancellor Joel Klein. It would seem to me that he should be fighting the budget cuts tooth and nail, scrambling to secure every last dollar for our schools. I believe he should have been on the front lines and forcefully speaking out against these cuts.
But I imagine he knows that his salary will be the one budget line that doesn't get cut. We all have to tighten our belts in tough times, of course, except the Chancellor. Thats why I believe the Chancellor should not be beholden to the Mayor but to some outside democratic body, such as the City Council or a board overseen by the Public Advocate, empaneled by parents, educators and other major stakeholders.
The proposed mayoral budget does not take any money from the Chancellors public relations apparatus either. The media relation department at Tweed is second only to the City Hall press corps, with over 15 positions with salaries of over $150,000. Their primary function is to “spin” the public into believing that the Chancellor is doing a good job and to further Mayor Bloomberg's political agenda, enhance his national image and further his political clout paving the way for future political office.
Tell me how many times have you heard that Mayor Bloomberg is the Education Mayor? Now, tell me how many times you have heard that from a parent, an educator or any other major stakeholder for our children, probably none. I suspect you have been taken in by Tweed spin machine just as the Mayor and Chancellor have planned, with our tax dollars.
I feel that the top down bureaucracy at Tweed should be cut to the bare bones before any budget cuts are passed on to the school class rooms, but this is not what happens in the Bloom/Klein era of public education.
To summarize, the CFE lawsuit made a $7 Billion commitment to new school funding to be phased in over the next four years, along with strong accountability measures and a public review process to ensure the the money is well spent and is not wasted. NYC's share of the new funding was committed at $3.2 Billion from the State and $2.2 Billion from the City budget – which was agreed to by the Mayor and the City Council.
Now the Governor and the Mayor have proposed cutting funding from their commitments, passed into law to fairly fund our schools. The State has proposed a $193 Million cut to NYC schools. Our Education Mayor has already enacted $180 Million cut (school budgets were cut 1.7% across the City last month) and he has now proposed an additional cut of $324 million next year. The combined cuts to NYC education funding will be almost ¾ of a billion dollars (less than the cost of one week of the Iraq war).
I ask that you join me and the thousands of others who rallied at City Hall to demand a full restoration of educational funding by the State and the City. It is time for the Governor and the Mayor to obey the law, our children have waited long enough..!
Sincerely,
David M. Quintana
Ozone Park, NY
http://davidmquintana.blogspot.com
