You would think when you lie to cover your tracks, that in politics the lie will eventually be sniffed out and exposed. Apparently our Mayor Michael Bloomberg isn't that good of a politician. When the story came out that "Mr. Independent" donated half a million dollars to re-elect Republican state Senators in order to hold their slim majority, Democrats were pissed off and many wondered just how independent Bloomberg really is. Well his excuse was that a divided government was better and more so that Senate Republicans were better at funding the priorities of New York City and especially on education.
Well now we know that is complete bullshit:
Last year Democratic Senator David Valesky from Oneida introduced a bill that would amend the New York State constitution to prohibit unfunded mandates. The Senate bill is S.2201 CONCURRENT RESOLUTION OF THE SENATE AND ASSEMBLY proposing amendments to article 9 of the constitution, in relation to prohibiting unfunded mandates. The bill went through all the hoops but was being stalled in committee by the Republican majority until February when the Senate Democrats filed a Notice of Motion to Petition which would pull the bill out of committee and have a floor debate. The Democrats did the same thing last year and lost. Yesterday the vote was straight down party lines again with the republicans once again playing petty politics with an important piece of legislation. Instead of voting to make sure that schools are fully funded by the state for mandates forced on the districts by the State, Fuschillo, Skelos, Marcellino and Hannon voted for the status quo of high taxes. Nassau's lone Democrat in the Senate Craig Johnson was a co-sponsor of the bill.
It is a testament to the Nassau republican delegations inability to do what is right instead of what is politicially expedient. The change to the State constitution would be a step in the right direction for school aid across the state. I personally do not believe that many of the state education mandates are needed to begin with but as long as they are there, they must be fully funded. This bill cannot change the fact that No Child Left Behind is a huge under-funded Federal mandate by about $955million. That is something the NY Congressional Delegation must deal with. The best thing to do is repeal NCLB because we will never see it fully funded and in my opinion it hurts students more than helps.
Basically what that is saying, and the summary of the bill below it in the link is that the New York state Republican delegation in the Senate does not give a rat's ass about education in New York City or the state. The state will now abandon their duty to finance our schools. So what do you have to say about this Mr.
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