Without some grass-roots activism, it is unlikely that State and Senate Majority leader Joe Bruno, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, or Governor George Pataki will ever obey the court order and send our city the education funds we deserve.
As Councilman Thomas White, Jr. of the 28th Council District pointed out in his Op-Ed piece in The Queens Courier, students who entered kindergarten when the Campaign for Fiscal Equality (CFE) filed their lawsuit will be graduating this year. Another generation of our children gypped of the educations they should have gotten. More generations will follow if we do not demand our fair share.
Our local politicians have gone to Albany and lobbied, talked, demanded and been patted on the back and then ignored. The arrogance of our leaders in Albany must stop now. They must give us the money the courts mandated. Put the 2006 ($1.7 billion) and the 2007 ($1.8 billion) portion of the $14.8 billion dollars in school-aid that the court mandated into the budget and SEND US THE MONEY.
We must build new schools. Queens schools are seriously overcrowded, with School District 24, which covers Elmhurst, Maspeth, Middle Village, Corona and Glendale, having 77% of their school buildings holding more students than they were built to accommodate. We must also repair and maintain our existing schools lest we lose more classrooms to leaks and decay. We must build new science labs, gymnasiums, outdoor play spaces, art and music rooms lest we waste more young minds.
GET ACTIVE - BE HEARD NOW!
USE OUR COUPON AND SEND IT TO THOSE BELOW:
Governor George Pataki, Executive Chamber,
State Capital, Albany, NY 12224
Senator Joseph Bruno, Capital Building, Albany, NY 12247
Assemblyman Sheldon Silver, 945-A LOB, Albany, NY 12248
To:__________________________________________ (politician)
I __________________________ (your name) am a resident of __________________, New York and I demand that you stop appealing the Campaign for Fiscal Equality lawsuit ruling and SEND OUR SCHOOLS the $14.8 billion in funding they deserve. You may not hold our children hostage — you may not shortchange another generation of our children from receiving the educations they deserve.
Don’t want to write? Call Pataki at: 518-474-8390 and say SEND US THE MONEY!
