Monday, March 11, 2013

Silver And Assembly Put NYC School Aid Back In The Budget

But the State Senate - controlled by Republicans - will not:

 Democrats who dominate the Assembly are poised on Monday to pass a budget resolution that restores the money and redirects another $308 million for schools beyond the amount proposed earlier this year by Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

...
The Republican-dominated coalition that controls the Senate will not restore the $240 million, according to Sen. John Flanagan, a Long Island Republican who chairs the chamber's Education Committee.

The lawsuit filed by Michael Rebell may be the deciding factor in any case.  And Rebell is confident he will win:

ALBANY — An education funding advocate said he was confident New York City schools would see a planned $240 million cut restored, either as a result of a court order or legal change.

Michael Rebell, an attorney who won a $7 billion increase in state education funding as a result of the Campaign for Fiscal Equity case, told school board members from around the state that he was confident in his latest suit against officials. Already, a state judge in Manhattan has blocked the cut, which was announced in January after New York City education and union officials failed to agree on a system for evaluating teachers.

"The constitutional case against it is very strong," said Rebell, whose CFE suit affirmed a student's right to a "sound, basic" education through high school.

...

"Legislators have said this is like the federal sequester: this is horrendous, but this was a threat," Rebell continued. "Well, the threat didn't work, at least in New York City. Now they see the result, and they realize they're hurting kids for something that's not related to kids' needs."

We'll see if the courts make Student Lobbyist Cuomo unhappy by forcing him to restore the increase in school aid to NYC.

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