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Cadeyrn May 13, 2013 at 09:49 am
Well said, Harold. But I would emphasize this more : "Overall, a $3.4 million increase in…Read More benefits—which includes a $2.5 million increase for Employee Retirement System (ERS) and Teacher Retirement System (TRS) expenses ..." Get your head around that figure.
Cuomo and the Albany leaders are terrified of the unionists ... and taxpayers are sacrificed because of their spinelessness and their greed to line their political war chests at the expense of the very people they bathed to protect. This is an unconscionable expense that will only explode with more power as the years roll by. At what point is it all too much? I think sooner than most suspect.
These pensions were ripe for reform two decades ago. Not only did that not happen, but pensions for a time were actually sweetened. The her-based pension reforms touted by Cuomo are toothless ... and unlikely to provide an ounce of relief for a decade or more.
There is only so much blood in the rock ...
Harold1968 April 23, 2013 at 09:30 pm
"82% of the budget goes to salaries, health care and pensions." - Wake up taxpayers! Why…Read More does the average taxpayer retire at 67 while teachers retire at 55? Why does the average taxpayer have a LOWER average salary than the public union employees that work for them? Why does the average taxpayer have to deal with pay cuts and layoffs while teachers have tenure and get TWO raises (contract and STEP) EVERY year? Why does the average taxpayer pay thousands of dollars to buy healthcare while teachers pay NOTHING? Why do teachers have guaranteed, generous pensions while the average taxpayer has no financial guarantees? Why does the average taxpayer work 12 months each year while teachers work 9 months?? Wake up New York taxpayers. There are three hardworking taxpayers for every union member in New York. We have the votes to take back New York! When will you get sick and tired of paying the highest taxes in the COUNTRY? The public unions have owned the NY politicians for years. You need to ask your representative if they are "anti-union". If they say anything other than "YES" then you need to vote them OUT. We need teachers to retire at 67, we need teacher salaries in line with the taxpayers that pay their salaries, we need the bad teachers fired, we need teachers to put in a full year because our children are failing compared to the rest of the world, we need 401K plans for all teachers, we need teachers to pay for their own healthcare. Is it asking too much? We do it don't we?
Stefani Kim (Editor) April 20, 2013 at 08:23 pm
Sorry, it's Roslyn School District and two-grade, one year deployment.
LMF April 2, 2013 at 06:21 pm
The "War On Drugs" was lost years ago. The only common-sense deterrent in our society is…Read More work-place random testing. Apply it to the schools. Mandate that no one graduates high school without first submitting to a random drug (hair, not urine...accurate to 6 months!) test to be given anytime in the Spring..Legislators should get onboard with this to avoid any legal obstacles. It WILL trickle back down to the middle school.
Peter44 March 23, 2013 at 11:51 am
The crucial distinction, Jonathan, is that the 19 boys that receive train passes to go to Fordham…Read More actually use the passes, because that is a reasonable way for them to get to school. The public transportation routes that your committee has proposed for most of the private/parochial school children are patently absurd. Many would require the children to travel to school the night before and sleep there in order to arrive by the start of school. Another route requires a child to walk through a lake. The fact that these public transportation alternatives are not only unreasonable but ridiculous is obvious to everyone. (Well, maybe not to those that can't distinguish between Fordham and Iona, or between .7% and 7.8%.)
Jonathan Sacks March 18, 2013 at 12:18 pm
There is no argument that you child should receive transportation, the argument is that it does not…Read More need to be a home-school private bus. If there is a public transportation alternative that is acceptable under NYS Law. We already have 19 children that have been using public transportation to Iona, other districts have children use public transportation. It is simply too expensive in these lean times to provide private bus service.
As far as you paying taxes, when you send you children out of district, so what? We all do, this is not an argument, empty nesters with no children pay school taxes, parents with 5 children do not pay more in school taxes. If you are part of the community you need to pay for the schools regardless of having children in the school.
Mary March 17, 2013 at 09:59 pm
State law requires that any child that lives more than two miles from his or her school, be it…Read More public, private or parochial, receives transportation. My child attends a private school, which I pay yearly tuition for. Additionally, I pay public school taxes every year. What is your argument that my child who lives more than two miles from his school should no longer receive transportation, while children who live further than two miles from their public school should?
Latino U College Access March 1, 2013 at 04:20 am
We thank you for your comment Teleman. As a nonprofit organization we are limited by how much we…Read More can do. The mission of our organization is to help Latino students attain a college education. However, We welcome all participants and our handouts are in English and Spanish. Most Latino HS students prefer to speak English but their parents have limited English skills. We share information in Spanish so that parents can clearly understand the details and specifics of this important topic and are able to help their children fulfill their college goals. I hope you can see the positive results that can come from this and for the future of our community...whether hispanic or non-hispanic. thank you.
R Rice March 2, 2013 at 03:17 pm
Gail, I agree it is a rather unusual place to see this particular metaphor, but describing the…Read More school or police response as within "their silo," pretty clearly acknowledges both entities endeavoring to address the problem from their own isolated vantage point without any outside help. A silo is "literally" an air-tight tower that holds / protects a commodity (some type of grain) from the elements. Schools and police department have been "at odds" over issues such as crime reporting, and heavy- handedness, and have at times demonstrated a lack of cooperation in areas, that affect both entities that have existed and do exist within many communities.
Bratton's remarks which do not acknowledge the actual author (for whatever reason) are really just segments of the original ideas of James Q. Wilson - a criminologist who wrote about "pro-active" policing in the later part of last Century, and who is widely regarded as the originator of "community policing" as a concept. Mr. Wilson espouses in one of his better known essays (see; "Broken Windows") co-operation between civilians and police as exponentially more effective than police given their myriad limitations, in preventing crime, rather than reacting to it.
As for "litany," again I guess you'd chalk it up to someone possibly not doing a real good job at proof-reading a public address, because they don't do it often...
gail burlakoff February 28, 2013 at 01:53 pm
Please help me understand the use here of the word "silo." It appears early in the…Read More article:
"School administrators cannot solve the problem of school safety in their silo," he said. "Police cannot solve it in their silo. Fire and emergency response people cannot solve it in theirs and the parents of the children that we are all obligated to protect cannot do it on their own.”
and again, at the end: "Bratton added that avoiding silos between people who are involved can be a way of stopping a witch-hunt situation."
To me, a "silo" is a storage structure on a farm, usually for grain of some sort. Webster's says it's a trench or a tall cylindrical structure used for storing silage. Please explain the meaning of the word in this article--a new definition?
Thanks.
I'm also startled by the inventive use of the word "litany," in "along with a litany of experts"!
Lisa Buchman (Editor) February 27, 2013 at 03:10 pm
Daniel, thanks for this post. With all of the institutions of higher education in the area, the…Read More issues you raise are relevant to many in Westchester and Rockland counties. Look forward to following your blogs.
Mamaroneck, Rye Neck School Budgets Pass
1 Recommend Stefani Kim (Editor)