Local PTA advocacy

This letter was provided by our local PTA so that parents could easily advocate for their children's schools.  Additional versions were distributed for parents to send to Assemblywoman Paulin and Governor Cuomo.

I'm unsure what exactly this part means:

Revise the way schools are funded to ensure equity so that all children in New York State receive the same high level of education. 

Address _______________________

Address _______________________

Date      ________________________

Dear Senator Klein,  
Our children need your help!
Taxpayers in New York are tax-weary and need property tax relief. However, Governor Cuomo proposes a simplistic solution that may have dire consequences for our schools and our children.   The Governor wants a tax cap.  It sounds like a good idea. 
However, unless a tax cap is accompanied with meaningful mandate relief, the result could decimate the Eastchester Schools. 
Any discussion on tax cap legislation must do the following:

·        Revise the way schools are funded to ensure equity so that all children in New York State receive the same high level of education. 

·        Repeal underfunded or unfunded state mandates that require local municipalities and school districts to significantly increase spending and therefore raise local property taxes. 

·        End the poor practice of passing costs on to taxpayers for unnecessary mandates.  

This is a crucial time in this country.  We must ensure that our children are prepared to meet the requirements to excel in a sophisticated and demanding global economy.  The opposite may occur under the Cuomo approach to education.  It will inescapably lead to drastic cuts in essential local school district programs and significant layoffs of school district employees.  DO NOT LET THIS HAPPEN ON YOUR WATCH.
Thank you for all that you do for the Eastchester Community and the Eastchester Schools.

Sincerely,
Name: ____________________________________________
Signature: _________________________________________

PTA's new focus is "advocating for funds"

Not your mom's PTA: Fun fundraisers yield to advocating for funds

That's the headline of a lohud.com article spelling out out why the PTA's new focus is on defending against education spending cuts during these tough economic times.  Although this new priority is understandable, I wish PTAs would spend more energy helping schools learn how to do more with less, since increasing productivity may be the best way to advocate for our children as government funding continues to feel the pressure of a faltering economy and crippling deficits.

Several straight years of budget crises that threaten to change the nature of public education have inspired the venerable PTA to modernize its approach to defending schools and students. Local and regional PTAs across the state are now trolling through legislation and contracts, fighting state-aid cuts, and meeting with lawmakers in an effort to get a seat at the lobbying table....
The cuts are devastating and coming at the wrong time, said Lex Kessler, a member of the Somers PTA Council. He said American kids are falling behind their peers in other countries, especially in math and science.

PTA members should be reminded that higher education spending has not correlated with higher student achievement levels.

Somewhat surprisingly, an ex-PTA president serving as a state legislator is advocating for the tax cap.

Even Sen. Suzi Oppenheimer, a Democrat from the Sound shore who started out as a PTA president decades ago, changed her position and said she is backing a cap this year so she "can be at the table" and push for mandate relief.
Any discussion of a tax cap must address ballooning debt payments and pension and health-care costs, she said.
"I'm trying to offer some simple, but necessary changes to it," she said.

I agree with the sentiments expressed by this comment:

I do applaud all the PTA volunteers for their time & effort. However, their mission should not be a lobbying effort for the teachers & union.
The PTA should be asking the teachers how to do more with less.

Read the entire article after the jump.