As you enter the final stretch of budget negotiations, two troubling proposals about New York’s schools are reportedly under consideration that must be rejected.
The first is a proposal to protect New Yorkers from the flawed federal tax overhaul that, if not carefully worded, could allow New Yorkers to make donations to private religious schools and receive a tax credit for their contributions.
This would divert taxpayer dollars to religious schools, erode the wall between church and state and prop up institutions that discriminate against students’ sexual orientation. Efforts to blunt the impact of bad tax policy should not come with a backdoor that funnels state money into religious schools. Tax credits should only be available for donations to public schools.
The second would increase the number of police, guns and metal detectors in schools as part of the State Senate’s “Comprehensive School Safety Package.” These are flawed tactics that don’t make students safer. Instead, they teach kids to feel like criminals and thrust many of them – particularly black and brown children – into the criminal justice system with lifetime consequences for youthful misbehavior. Our schools need an infusion of more counselors, not cops and weapons.
Any final budget package that gets your vote must not include these disastrous proposals that put our students' futures at risk.
