Speak out against Cuomo’s Kid Sanction Bill

One of the provisions in the Governor’s proposal concerns something called “full family sanctions.” When a someone in a family receiving welfare is thought to have broken a rule, they receive sanctions – i.e., a reduction in their welfare grant. Currently, household containing a sanctioned individual has their welfare grant reduced only by the amount that one person in that household would receive. For example, a family of three people with a sanctioned member receives a welfare grant equal in amount to that of a family of two.

Under current law, the children in sanctioned families continue to have their basic needs met. Governor Cuomo’s budget proposal changes this law, eliminating the entire family’s welfare grant.

The upshot of this change is that tens of thousands of children in sanctioned families will no longer continue to have their basic needs met. Not only will they lose their housing, child care and access to food stamps, but research suggests that they will also be at greater risk of educational failure, health problems, and foster care involvement.

You can speak out against this provision!

Reach out to your NYS Assembly representative and tell them to move against these child sanctions! Pay particular attention to the members of the Social Services Committee.

Check back early next week for model language and talking points that you can use in a letter, email or phone call!

In the mean time, for more information about this, check out the Citizen’s Committee for Children’s Statement about the Governor’s Proposal:

“To help close a $10 billion budget deficit, Governor Cuomo’s budget shifts traditional state supports to struggling counties and reduces spending on a wide-array of services and programs for children and youth that have already been proven effective at producing positive outcomes and preventing more costly interventions”

Governor’s proposals balance budget on the backs of children

The Resilience Advocacy Project (RAP) is highly concerned that the impact of Governor Cuomo’s Executive Budget proposals will be to undermine the development of low-income children and youth. In order to close the State’s $10 million gap, Governor Cuomo plans to cut spending on vital programs and services that support our most vulnerable young people.

Among the most disturbing:

• $2.8 billion cut to School Aid: New York City is facing a $1.4 billion funding reduction and will be forced to make choices between closing schools, laying off teachers, increasing class sizes, reducing classroom resources like school books and desks, and eliminating educational supports like tutoring and transportation.

Says Billie Easton, Executive Director of Alliance for Quality Education:

Governor Cuomo’s budget pulls the rug out on children’s education by cutting literacy programs, career and technical education, college prep, pre-K, arts, music, sports, tutoring, guidance counselors and school librarians. [This budget's] cuts to our kids’ schools are the largest in history. If they are adopted, the damage to students will be permanent because children do not get a second chance.

Study shows number of hungry in NYC increased in 2010, recommends policy improvements

The New York City Coalition Against Hunger (NYCCAH) revealed that demand at NYC food pantries and soup kitchens increased by 6.8% in 2010 after already going up by 20.8% in 2009. The information was in a survey titled “Hungry New Yorkers Barely Hang On,” which further showed that 51.4% of NYC soup kitchens and pantries did not have sufficient resources to meet this high demand. The Huffington Post quoted Joel Berg of the NYCCAH stating:

“No one is celebrating that in the richest city in the history of the world, with 58 billionaires, half of the charitable organizations have to turn people away.”

The NYCCAH made several policy recommendations for the federal, state, and city government in order to reduce these high levels of hunger, and make already existing programs such as Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) (previously the Food Stamp Program) more effective.

Federal recommendations include:

• Making school breakfasts standard in public schools;
• Funding universal school lunches (As discussed in the previous blog post, the recent passage of the Child Nutrition Bill has made significant steps toward this achievement);
• Expanding number of children who are eligible for free/reduced price lunch programs; and
• Avoiding cutting funds from needed programs like SNAP to fund alternative efforts.

New York State recommendations include:

• Ensuring access to the Women, Infants, and Children Program site in every low-income neighborhood; and
• Increasing state funding for outreach efforts, breast-feeding promotion, and peer counseling in order to support early childhood health and wellbeing.

New York City recommendations include:

• Expanding the Breakfast in the Classroom program and mandate that it be used during instructional time;
• Continuing and expanding the universal school lunch program; and
• Increasing outreach on the Women, Infants, and Children program and summer meals.

If these suggestions are taken seriously, the dire problem of hunger in New York can begin to be alleviated, particularly for youth. As Berg states, “the only reason we’re not experiencing a full-blown catastrophe” is because of the implementation of government programs. In order to diminish hunger further, these programs must be examined, evaluated and improved. To read the report in full, please click here.

News Update: Additional interesting articles

Here are some additional interesting articles related to our issues to check out:

New York News:

• “Cathie Black makes debut as schools chancellor; meets, greets Bronx parents, students,” by Rachel Monahan, Henrick Karoliszyn and Meredish Kolodner, NY Daily News, Nov. 30 – New NYC School Chancellor Cathie Black approved despite lack of education experience, makes first appearance at city public school in Bronx.
• “Students rally to save Newton H.S.,” by Aisha Al-Muslim, Queens Courier, Dec. 1 – Students protest outside Queens Center Mall, urging Department of Education not to close their school which has had a 50% graduation rate for the past six years.
• “Single Stop Helps Bronx College Students Stay in School,” by Peter Milosheff, Bronx Times, Nov. 15 – CUNY community colleges are helping low-income students remain in school with Single Stop USA, a non-profit that connects students with benefits counseling, legal and financial advice, and tax preparation.

U.S. News:

• “Senate Passes One-Year TANF Extension,” CLASP, Nov. 20 – The Senate passed, by unanimous consent, a bill that provided for a one-year extension of the TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families) block grant program through Sept. 30, 2011.
• “The Raging Fire,” by Bob Herbert, New York Times, Nov. 15 – Column on reason for proficiency inequality amongst black and white students shown in report by Council of the Great City Schools.

Governor candidates’ plans (or lack there of) for education reform

In the City Limits article, “Fill in the Blanks: Cuomo’s Education Plans Short on Detail,” Helen Zelon writes that Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, the Democratic nominee for Governor, lacks specificity when it comes to his plans for education.

Cuomo’s five-point plan hardly mentions education reform, although he has said that educational inequality is “probably the civil rights issue of our time.”

He said:

“There are two education systems in this state, one for the rich and one for the poor, and they are both public systems.”

The nominee further explained that the disparity in New York’s education system is caused by the fact that it is funded through the property tax system, as discussed in a previous blog post. Richer school districts have more valuable property to tax, and thus more money to spend on their schools.

Zelon reports that Cuomo wants to cap the property taxes that fund the state’s schools, “while improving school results across the board.” But how academic achievement will be improved has not been directly addressed.

Moreover, experts like Karl Corn of the New York State United Teachers are skeptical of the property tax cap. Corn says capping taxes

“will exacerbate the achievement gap, [because] poorer districts would not be able to raise the money they need locally,”

Cuomo’s Republican opponent, Carl Paladino, also does not appear to have made education reform a priority in his campaign, or provide concrete details on his education policy. However, he supports private- and parochial-school vouchers and growth in the state’s charter schools, including residential charters targeted to the state’s poorest students.

In the New York Post article “‘Strangling’ NYC kids’ futures,” Howard Fuller and Kevin P. Chavous advocate for holding every elected official accountable for education reform. They write:

“Parents and community members must stand together and tell their elected officials how important it is to create a better public-school system.”

Indeed, in this coming election, it is time for New Yorkers to take a stand, and make the need for education reform at the top of Cuomo’s and Paladino’s plans. Education inequality, and ultimately a failed education system, is unacceptable for the children who represent New York’s future.

To make your opinion heard:
Contact Cuomo’s campaign
Contact Paladino’s campaign