Westchester Education Consortium Letter Campaign a Success

• Editor's note: The following is statement from the Lower Westchester Education Consortium. Click here for the original story on the letter writing campaign.

 

April 2013

Dear Parents and Community Members,

The Lower Westchester Education Consortium would like to thank you for your participation in a successful letter-writing campaign.  To date, our parents in the 18 school districts participating in the Consortium have sent thousands of letters to legislators in Albany, expressing our concern about:

• APPR and the over-reliance on standardized testing;
• School funding and the property tax cap levy;
• The overwhelming costs of unfunded and underfunded mandates;
• How the impact and costs of NY State’s education policies are leading to a loss of local control over our school districts. 

We heard back from our legislators, who said that they were printing out our emails and bringing stacks of them into their colleagues’ offices to lobby with.  Our legislators heard, in large numbers, how we as parents are concerned about the direction of our children’s education.

During the state budget negotiations in March, we heard of an executive proposal to decrease education funding to Westchester and other downstate counties, because we are “wealthier” and able to raise revenues through property taxes.  Our local legislators were able to fight on our behalf -- with the help of our letters -- to restore $436 million in funding to our public schools that would have otherwise been cut. 

This restoration of funding translates into different increases, depending on the school district. In Ardsley, we saw an increase of an additional $235,000 in state aid for the upcoming 2013-2014 school year.  

While this has not solved the problem of unfunded mandates and the current educational reforms impact on our schools, it has lessened the budgetary burden somewhat for this coming year.

Without your help, the budgetary situation for our public schools would have been that much worse.

If you would like to thank the following NY State legislators for their efforts lobbying on our behalf, their e-mail addresses are:

Thomas J. Abinanti
Assemblymember - District 92
abinantit@assembly.state.ny.us

John J. Flanagan
Chairman of the Education Committee
flanagan@nysenate.gov

Andrea Stewart-Cousins
Democratic Conference Leader, (D, IP, WF) 35th Senate District
scousins@senate.state.ny.us

The Lower Westchester Education Consortium would like to renew its commitment to work with you in the fight to maintain the integrity and high standards of our public schools during this time of all-too-rapid education reform and budgetary challenges.  Working together, we have strength and a voice as parents, taxpayers and voters that can make a real difference in our children’s education.

Sincerely,

The Lower Westchester Education Consortium Steering Committee