Lowey Calls Budget Cuts on Education Misguided, Hurtful to Students
At a press conference in White Plains Monday afternoon, Congresswoman Nita Lowey (D-New York District 17) was flanked by representatives of school boards, superintendents of schools and teacher organizations from the Lower Hudson Valley. Together they blasted the impact of federal budget cuts on students, teachers, schools and communities and called on Congress to reach a budget agreement by October 1, that would better support local schools.
Opening the meeting, Tim Connors, White Plains Schools Interim Superintendent, said that Congresswoman Lowey had always championed education.
Connors explained that all too often federal money that has been put in place, quickly goes away. “In the race to the top,” he said, “if the states are given money and they accept it, then they might have to change their testing program by putting everything on computers and that takes money. Or the funds are linked to teacher evaluations and that is costly. After a while the funding for programs just isn’t there.”
During her remarks regarding the possibility that Congress might miss the deadline to pass a budget, Lowey said she had never seen such a dysfunctional Congress. In the past we could talk across the aisle. Now, the Tea Party won’t allow it,” she said, adding: “I hope we can resolve the budget in a responsible bi-partisan way in the next two weeks. This is about the future of our children.”
According to Lowey, despite the damage done by across-the-board cuts to education, the republican proposal to fund education initiatives would lock in the current cuts and slash the education spending bill by another 22 percent in 2014. If applied proportionately, it would lower federal funding for education by $2.6 billion and aid for disadvantaged students by $2.8 billion.
“If we want to remain a global leader, we need to help today’s students become tomorrow’s entrepreneurs and innovators. We should give our students and teachers the tools to succeed, not make their jobs harder through increases to classroom size and reductions to personnel and enrichment programs,” Lowey emphasized.
Early education and afterschool programs were singled out as having been hit the hardest, especially those supporting children with learning disabilities and at the poorest income levels.
Representatives from numerous teachers unions in the area agreed that funding cuts had caused the loss of hundreds of quality teachers and full-day kindergarten programs had been cut back to half-days.
Karen Magee, President of the Harrison Association of Teachers, emphasized that early intervention for students with disabilities and from lower income families had proven to be cost-effective in warding off problems down the road. “We have to be able to hire high quality teachers,” Magee said. “There is a 50 percent teacher attrition rate,” she added. “Fifty percent of teachers leave after five years.”
Frank Williams, Executive Director of the White Plains Youth Bureau said funding for two 21st Century Community Learning programs had been cut in White Plains leaving 900 children without after school care. “These are latch-key kids now or they are hanging out at the Galleria mall,” he said. “It seems we have taken one step forward only to be thrown two steps back.”
While White Plains does have a fee-based after school program in place, the lost programs provided support for the poorest families. Williams said it would take $1.7 million for both lost programs to be refunded.
The New York State cap on property tax rate increases and evaporating federal funding that cannot be replaced at the local level were identified as the two main problems facing local school districts.
As the press conference closed Lowey acknowledged that on the street she regularly hears from people in the community that their taxes are too high. When she tells them more money needs to be put into education they ask: “What does that do for me?”
“Education cuts are tragic,” she says. “If we do not invest in our kids now, what will happen later on?”
