NY Schools Budget Crisis Hits Home

New York State is proposing a 1.5 Billion cut in school budgets. The ripple of this proposed cut is already being felt in the Liberty Central School District.

Liberty stands to lose about 1.3 Million dollars in funding. This is a large chunk of the budget and over 20 employees at the Liberty Elementary School have already been notified that they will not have a job after June 11th.

The 1.5 Billion dollar cut is part of Governor Cuomo’s proposed executive budget. The budget proposal will lead to thousands of middle-class layoffs across New York creating more unemployed and shrinking state & local tax revenue even further.

The budget does offer a proposal for rewarding educational performance:

Rewarding Education Performance. New York public schools spend more per student
than any other state – fully 71 percent above the national average – yet New York ranks
40th in graduation rates and 34th in the nation in the percentage of adults who have a
high school diploma or the equivalent. To improve performance and efficiency, Governor
Cuomo has proposed restructuring a portion of State education aid to create incentives
that reward school districts for improving student performance and implementing
management efficiency policies. These include two competitive grants: a $250 million
School District Performance Improvement Award program of grants awarded to school
districts that demonstrate significant improvements in their student performance
outcomes, and a $250 million School District Management Efficiency Award program
that awards funding to school districts that undertake long-term structural changes that
will reduce costs and improve efficiency

New York State United Teachers union (NYSUT) are running a TV campaign against the cuts:

The cuts couldn’t come at a worse time for our educational system. The United States is already dropping in educational levels compared to the world. The AFP reports:

The three-yearly OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) report, which compares the knowledge and skills of 15-year-olds in 70 countries around the world, ranked the United States 14th out of 34 OECD countries for reading skills, 17th for science and a below-average 25th for mathematics.

Cuts could be made in other areas of the proposed state budget to at least lessen the blow to our school systems. Bolstering the budgets to our schools is a great idea that returns measurable effects. The AFP also reports:

Boosting US scores for reading, math and science by 25 points over the next 20 years would result in a gain of 41 trillion dollars for the United States economy over the lifetime of the generation born in 2010, the OECD said.

In addition to the cuts Governor Cuomo also presented a superintendent salary cap. The cap would be reflective on the enrollment in the school district. Our State Senator John Bonacic agrees with the proposal:

We need to be realistic about the current state of our economy. Setting a salary cap based on student enrollment makes a lot of sense and is a step in the right direction. It is an ideal, fair plan to cut spending at a time where we need to be frugal. As Governor Cuomo has said, the budget plan will be one that makes difficult choices.

The budget shortfall in Liberty will result in difficult choices. What you can do is support your local teachers and support staff. Call or write letters to our local state representation on how you feel about cuts to our education system, we’ve included the contact information below.

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State Senator John Bonacic:
188 State Street Room 509 Legislative Office Building
Albany, NY 12247
United States
Phone: (518) 455-3181

US Congressman Maurice Hinchey:
Office of Rep. Hinchey
2431 Rayburn H.O.B.
Washington, DC 20515
Phone: (202) 225-6335
Fax: (202) 226-0774

Assemblywoman Aileen M. Gunther:
District Office
18 Anawana Lake Road
Monticello, NY 12701
845-794-5807

Recycle Old Computers and Electronics

 LIBERTY – Back by popular demand, Sullivan County’s 4-H Program is adding a November 5th-6th E-Scrap recycling event to its autumn calendar.  Partnering once more with Advanced Recovery, Inc. and the Sullivan County Division of Solid Waste, the 4-H Program is working to raise funds as well as awareness for educational programs.

Friday, November 5th is set to collect E-Scrap from businesses, schools, municipalities and institutions, marking Sullivan County’s second ever commercial electronic scrap recycling initiative.  The following day, Saturday, November 6th is devoted solely to the collection of residentially-generated electronics from homes.  Collection will take place at the Cornell Cooperative Extension building on 64 Ferndale-Loomis Road in Liberty.

Commercial E-Scrap generators must pre-register by contacting Bob Travers at Advanced Recovery 845-858-8809 or e-mail rtravers@advancedrecovery.com  prior to the event.  Organizations will be invoiced $10 per monitor, laptop, LCD or plasma television; all other electronic equipment will be accepted free of charge.

Cost to the general public will be $15 per carload of residentially generated materials such as monitors, printers, keyboards, VCRs, batteries, cell phones, terminals, cables, fax machines, radios, modems, CPUs, telephones, TVs, and stereos.  Significant savings can be made by families taking advantage of this opportunity and a portion of the proceeds benefits Sullivan County 4-H.

“E-Waste” often contains hazardous materials.  Advanced Recovery is a recycling company that will collect the materials, salvage for reuse or otherwise recycle for recovery plastics, glass, ferrous and non-ferrous materials.  Each component of your electronic equipment will be reused or remarketed with no hazardous materials being sent to your landfills.  

For information on how to participate or help promote this noteworthy event, please contact Marylin Russell in the 4-H office.  Flyers available on www.sullivancce.org.

New Hours at Ferndale Transfer Station

Beginning on February 13th, the Ferndale transfer station will be open to residential customers on Saturday’s and Sundays from 7:45am to 2:45pm. There will be no more residential drop offs on Thursdays.

The station will be restricted to commercial use Monday-Friday 7:45am to 2:45pm.

Myth-busted: Why the WSS argument is Bull.

We’ve been monitoring the comments on a few stories and there always seems to be this strange ‘White Sulphur Springs controls the vote’ mantra. It’s just not true. What does happen is that people don’t pay attention to who they are voting for (just voting party lines), or the only candidates are from White Sulphur. Neither of which are caused by some vast conspiracy by WSS to dominate the world.

Even someone said that “uhg, Sean Hanoffee is from White Sulphur” when the Councilperson-Elect actually lives in the Village of Liberty. Um, White Sulphur people are the same as people from Swan Lake, the same as from Parksville, the same as from Liberty – we are all residents of the Town of Liberty.

It doesn’t matter where the politician is from – but sadly, most have special interest.

So let’s disperse the myth through numbers – we’ll break down the registered voters by Hamlet (& village) and by Party. Then you can decide.

There are 5,946 total voters in the Town of Liberty, out of a population of 9,632 (2000 census).

Let’s start with White Sulphur:

316 Registered Voters
Major Parties:
106 Independent / Blank
107 Democrat
93 Republican

170 Female
146 Male

————————-

Village of Liberty:
3,688 Registered Voters
Major Parties:
1,569 Democrat
1,094 Independent / Blank
887 Republican

2,016 Female
1,672 Male

————————-

Swan Lake:
890 Registered Voters
Major Parties:
410 Democrat
234 Republican
219 Independent / Blank

468 Male
422 Female

————————-

Parksville
574 Registered Voters
Major Parties:
257 Independent / Blank
209 Democrat
181 Republican

295 Male
279 Female

————————-

Ferndale
478 Registered Voters
Major Parties:
171 Democrat
155 Republican
135 Independent / Blank

244 Female
234 Male

So by the numbers: White Sulphur only accounts for 5% of the total vote. While the Village accounts for a whopping 62%.

But heres the real issue – while there is about 6,000 registered voters – only about 2,500 vote in the local elections. Citizens are given the right to vote – it’s your voice – you get to decide who gets elected – but obviously people don’t take this responsibility seriously. AND YET STILL if all of White Sulphur voted for the same candidate they still would only make up 12% of the vote.

There is no ‘White Sulphur Myth’ – Begin discussion.

(And yes we couldn’t use a pic of the Real JAMIE HYNEMAN from Mythbusters)