Spending Caps or Graduation Caps?

Education is the key to our future, you hear politicians say it all the time. The question is, which ones really mean it, and which ones don't really care about our future?

Republican John Faso, running (way behind) for Governor, wants to put a cap on funding increases for our schools. Faso also wants to take desperately needed funds from our most vulnerable school systems to give to corporate run education centers with little real accountability a.k.a. "Charter Schools."

Republican Janet Duprey, running for Assembly against Democrat Andrew Brockway, has yet to publicly articulate a clear position on this issue, but she has advocated for a cap on state spending.

"It's unconscionable for state representatives to suggest that local governments should be capped at a certain percentage without capping state spending at the same time." - Duprey

She has yet to explain how the state could continue to help fund local education programs with such caps in place. We all want the state's spending to be reasonable, but are arbitrary caps the answer?

If such caps where put in place and local schools needed assistance, but could not count on the state to make up the difference, they would be forced to lower the quality of education they provide. Perhaps if Republicans Duprey and Faso got their way the "failing" schools could be sold to the highest bidder so companies with their own private agendas could mold the minds of all our children.

Unlike the cap-happy Republicans, the Working Families Party endorsed Democrats Elliot Spitzer and Andy Brockway want real solutions for education. Elliot's tax plan would offer relief to overburdened tax-payers, without limiting our schools from raising needed funds. Any such increases would need to be approved by taxpayers anyway, and arbitrary caps do not take into account local conditions.

Andy thinks the state should fully fund our public schools, and he supports the Assembly's vote to restore money to the Tuition Assistance Program (TAP) over Republican Governor Pataki's veto.

Spitzer and Brockway have offered real solutions instead of the empty Republican rhetoric of spending caps. They realize that to provide a bright future for our state the only cap we should be supporting are graduation caps.

Please voice your support for the real solutions our state needs by donating $26 dollars to Andrew Brockway's campaign for the Assembly in 2006. With Andy in the Assembly more North Country students will be able to wear graduation caps in the future.