TEACHING THE HUDSON VALLEY BLOG
|
Tax cap perpetuates inequality |
|
Posted by Nancy Schniedewind
|
|
on July 11, 2011 |
|
Nancy is a professor of education at SUNY New Paltz, co-author of Open Minds to Equality: A Sourcebook of Learning Activities to Affirm Diversity and Promote Equality, and a former New Paltz school board member. This post appeared previously as a letter to the editor of the Poughkeepsie Journal.
June 24 was a bittersweet day for civil rights in New York State.
I applaud the passage of legislation to legalize gay marriage. At the same time I am outraged at the less publicized passage of the two percent local property tax cap that will deny the basic right to a quality education to millions of children in our state.
While NYS residents deserve property tax reform, Governor Cuomo’s two percent tax cap is unjust. The cap is devastating for educational programs of all school districts, but wealthy districts are more likely to get the 60% vote to override the cap while poorer districts will not. This will only increase the already wide “Educational Opportunity Gap.”
Will place-based education programs like this one aboard the
Clearwater only be available to students in wealthy districts?
What legislation could the governor and legislature have passed on June 24th that would be fair to taxpayers and would protect civil rights for communities’ children?
1. Change school funding from property tax to income tax, and/or
2. Tax the very wealthy substantially more, as was done during the Eisenhower administration, for example.
The governor and most state legislators have once again shown their allegiance to the wealthy rather than to the public good. June 24 will go down in history as a tragically contradictory day for human rights in New York State.
|
|
