By Ed Ra
With the state budget now 17 days overdue, New York’s schools are planning for next year with no clear sense of what resources they will have available. They will be forced to construct and release to the public their budgets by next Tuesday, without this vital information. That’s wrong.
Worse, ballots will begin to be mailed for school budget voters beginning next Friday, April 25. While there will be details in the proposed school budgets, what’s missing are the actual state aid numbers. It’s unacceptable to ask New Yorkers to vote on their school budgets without knowing how much funding their schools will actually receive.
The lack of urgency in wanting to finalize our state’s spending plan is frightening. It doesn’t help matters when our own governor is casual about the budget and says New Yorkers “don’t care” about a late budget. Perhaps she hasn’t spoken with or listened to school administrators, hospitals, direct service providers, law enforcement, or other groups that are relied on to provide critical and urgent services to New Yorkers — because they’ll surely tell you they care.
Ed Ra (R-Franklin Square) represents the 19th Assembly District, which consists of Nassau County, including parts of the towns of Hempstead and North Hempstead.