Cuomo to cut education while giving tax breaks to the wealthy.

[madfloridian]

Teachers have been protesting in upstate New York in places like Watertown and Albany. Governor Cuomo is threatening large cuts to education while not extending the tax on the state's highest income people.

There is a video of the Watertown protest at the CNN ireport link.

"Kids Over Millionaires" Protest- Cuomo to Slash Education While Giving Tax Breaks to the Rich

iReport —

“Protect our kids! Not Millionaires” was the battle cry heard in Watertown, NY, Upstate New York, on Wednesday as parents, students, advocates, teachers and community members from all over Jefferson County and Watertown, N.Y. converged to demand that the state protects its kids rather than its millionaires.

.."Cuomo’s budget calls for a 7.3% cut in state aid to schools, or $1.5 billion from the state’s more than $20 billion in annual school aid.Cuomo said that means local school budgets will get 2.9% less state aid.

Cuomo defends the budget:

"This budget achieves real, year-to-year savings while restructuring the way we manage our government. This is the first step toward rebuilding a new New York."

But, how do you defend a budget that simultaneously enacts the largest cut in education dollars in the state’s history and eliminates the higher Personal Income Tax on the state’s highest income earners?

More from the ireport about Cuomo's plans.

New York State Teachers Protest Education Cuts of $1.5 Billion

During the "Call for a Day of Action" protest, Wednesday, in Watertown, N.Y., I spoke to Renee Vogelsang, an AQE organizer, who said that Governor Andrew Cuomo has proposed rescinding the special "Millionaire Tax" which will make it necessary to cut NYS education by $1.5 billion.

This largest single cut to state services in New York State History will result in cuts to essential art, music, programs, teachers, support staff and more!

Cuomo also proposed $4.6 billion in tax cuts for the wealthiest New Yorkers by eliminating the "millionaires's tax."

A "Day of Action in Albany, N.Y." is called for on March 30th, 2011, to ask Governor Cuomo, "Whose side are you on?" Thousands of New Yorkers will be attending this rally. Buses will be provided.

The Kochs donated $87 thousand to Andrew Cuomo. That is about twice as much as they donated to Scott Walker, which is surprising.

Koch donations: $43,000 to Scott Walker. $87,000 to Andrew Cuomo.

The contributions from Mr. Koch and his wife Julia to the Cuomo campaign totalled $87,000; In comparison Koch only spent $43K on Gov. Scott walker of Wisconsin.

Koch brothers in total gave Cuomo $92K. Explains why he’d rather cut education funds than tax the rich.

Where has the MSM been on this? have you seen any stories in the papers?

As early as last year Cuomo was proclaiming that he and his lieutenant governor would be putting up a fight against teachers unions and public employee unions if he won. He was very open about it.

Andrew Cuomo, his running mate, and "New Democratic Party" to fight public employee unions?

.."In Duffy, Cuomo has chosen a potential lieutenant governor who stands for strong executive authority, especially in education. Duffy has been trying to follow in the footsteps of Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who's taken power from local school boards and put it in the mayor's office.

..."The head of the local teachers' union, which vehemently opposes Duffy's approach, told local TV that Duffy's move sharply divided the community. No doubt what the teachers, some parents and community members see as a mayoral power grab, Duffy and advocates for mayoral control, such as Bloomberg, see as ensuring accountability.

That drive for accountability is also expressed in Cuomo's support for lifting of the state's cap on charter schools. So on education, the "New Democrats" are aligning with President Barack Obama, Education Secretary Arne Duncan, Bloomberg, Reverend Al Sharpton, and even New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie in backing the expansion of charters.

Here is more about this new move by the New Democrats like Cuomo.

.."One change from the "old" Democratic party seems to be the willingness of Cuomo and his running mate Robert Duffy to take on a powerful constituency -- the public employee unions. Duffy has battled with union leaders in Rochester over some of his controversial proposals, including his call for more control of city schools. Cuomo says he respects that.

"Yes, he tangled with public employee unions," Cuomo said. "Guess what, we're going to be tangling with public employee unions going forward."

And they are. And they seem happy doing so. That's the sad part. No one seems even remotely ashamed of attacking and promising harm to public employees and their unions.

[tabatha]

1. Guess he really is in the Koch's back pocket.

[madfloridian]

21. Pursuing Koch's anti-public-union policies.

Sounds that way, doesn't it?

[Riley18]

2. Cuomo is just another Koch whore

[JanMichael]

3. Another sterling Democrat! nt.

[msongs]

4. the democratic party Inc is looking pretty dead these days nt

[madfloridian]

20. We need more outspoken "partisanship", not so much "bipartisan" stuff.

That's what I think.

We need two parties to have a healthy nation.

[avaistheone1]

32. For sure.

[DJ13]

5. His father must be so proud!

:sarcasm:

[no_hypocrisy]

13. Where did Mario go wrong?

:shrug:

[dhill926]

16. like Birch Bayh and his dumbass son........n/t

[TuxedoKat]

6. Yes, we're pretty upset about it

They want to cut our school's budget for the arts and some other things which may mean no theater, art, some sports, no AP classes and some languages may get cut. The art teacher had tears in his eyes when he was telling my daughter's class about the cuts since he would probably lose his job if they go through.

[madfloridian]

9. You are right about art, music, PE, drama....nationwide they are cutting them.

Or have already cut them.

It is no longer about learning...it is about profit for the already wealthy.

[ejpoeta]

7. I wasn't happy that they handpicked this guy and my choice was cuomo or

paladino. i mean, at least republicans got to choose who they wanted to run. the dems just picked who they wanted and we got to choose between nutjob paladino or cuomo. i am sick that people seem to think this is acceptable.

[madfloridian]

19. It's been sort of like that for years here in FL

Some candidates have just been pushed out of races by various means by the established Dems.

[Jefferson23]

8. Gee, who does he sound like....no new taxes, cut education, go after the unions.

What an inspiring fellow!

[Godhumor]

10. You have absolutely no idea how much of a mess the RCSD is right now

Superintendent just received a vote of no confidence, school board is hiding audit records from the public, abysmal graduation rate, teachers leaving in droves, etc. Duffy was actually extremely well supported in his attempts to retake control of the city schools--not out of union busting or anything else, but because of how corrupt and broken the school district happens to be.

[madfloridian]

11. Then we are surely glad there is no corruption in education reformers.

Aren't we?

[Godhumor]

12. Duffy isn't an "educational reformer" like Rhee. He acted in the RCSD due to administrative

corruption not to bust teachers. You can search the archives of the Rochester paper democratandchronicle.com for stories from his tenure in Rochester--the guy was extremely popular, even with teachers, ex or otherwise. Including me.

need to add on edit: I just went back and looked at articles from early Jan 2010 through today, and the tone definitely changes from skepticism and outright anger at the plan to anger at the school board and the superintendent. I will keep my comment above, because I'd rather not hide from it, but I was wrong that this plan was always popular. My mistake, and I own up to it.

[madfloridian]

15. Thanks for clarifying.

The anger is growing because people are seeing all they worked for going down in flames. They are being blamed for what the corporate world has done to this country, and the blame is coming in lectures from our own president and DOE.

The anger will continue to grow as the purpose of the hostile takeover of education becomes more clear every day.

It is an outright attack on public schools and public teachers so the venture capitalists can come in and pick the bones.

[senseandsensibility]

14. k and r

How pathetic he is.

[madfloridian]

17. 33 arrested outside Cuomo's capitol office.

http://online.wsj.com/article/AP42319f69d7cd4f16bb4ae1537eb9d7dd.html

"ALBANY, N.Y. — State police arrested 33 demonstrators Wednesday outside Gov. Andrew Cuomo's office in the second batch of arrests during the most heated budget session in years. The protesters were led by faculty and students from the City University of New York, which faces a 10-percent cut in funding under Cuomo's proposed budget. The five busloads of demonstrators drew parallels to the fight for fundamental union rights under assault in Wisconsin's statehouse in Madison.

CUNY protesters and companion groups also decried proposed cuts in public school aid and social service programs.

"Tax the rich, not the poor; stop the war on CUNY!" and "Stop the war on teachers!" were among the chants during the half-hour demonstration. "Wisconsin, New York, the struggle is the same!" was another. Protesters wore tags that stated, "We are all Wisconsin."

The Professional Staff Congress of CUNY said six students were arrested along with faculty members. The demonstrators remained seated until troopers quietly asked them to move, then helped them up, clasped the demonstrators' hands behind their backs with a plastic band and walked to waiting vehicles, still chanting."

[madfloridian]

18. Cuomo blasts teachers unions. Says they are making bogus threats.

Of course cutting education resources will hurt students. Of course.

http://www.silive.com/news/index.ssf/2011/03/cuomo_school_aid_advocates_mak.html

"ALBANY, N.Y. -- New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo snapped back today at union-backed school aid advocates, saying they're making bogus threats that children would face larger classes, massive teacher layoffs and the loss of sports and the arts under his proposed cut to school aid.

The Democrat said today that the rare cut after a decade of historic increases could easily be made up by cutting waste and fraud in school districts and using ample reserves without laying off teachers or hurting instruction.

"It's a threat. It's a game," Cuomo said after a meeting with legislative leaders, in rhetoric rivaling rants from governors in New Jersey and Wisconsin and from his own campaign. "It's a game -- they want to oppose the cuts politically, so what do they say, 'I'm going to hurt your child. Your child will not get an education.'"

School advocates shot back, saying Cuomo's cuts and even the modest restorations proposed by the Legislature would indeed hurt kids and trigger layoffs of thousands of teachers. They were reacting to Cuomo's comments following a closed-door meeting with Legislature leaders."

[madfloridian]

22. Don't miss the videos at the ireport links. They give me hope.

[Overseas]

23. This is so sad. Glad there will be demonstrations against it.

Painful to see Democrats who play along with the intense right wing cruel priorities.

[jmowreader]

24. Jefferson County, NY, is about as Republican as it gets

I've seen a LOT of anti-school cuts demonstrations in seriously Republican areas, so this seems to be a trend. (Idaho has had a LOT of these, and there are about thirty Democrats in the whole state.) It's too bad the Republicans are selling these cuts as somehow being the Democrats' fault and NOT because the Republicans cut taxes too low over the last thirty years.

[OswegoAtheist]

25. Everyone is up in arms

Too bad our SUNY leadership (faculty and student) is too disjointed to do anything effective. The State University budget is being slashed for the third time in three years, and we'll be down to about 2/3 of what we were operating at before. SUNY Geneseo has had to cut Language and Computer Sciences majors, and every school is filling tenure positions with adjuncts. Early retirements, part-time associate profs, one-ply TP; every corner is being cut.

Oswego "Not joking about the TP" Atheist

[defendandprotect]

26. Another faker elected --- !! Has to be an answer to this --- labels can't be trusted!!

[Name removed]

27. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Octafish]

28. And the guy calls himself a Democrat?

"Guess what, we're going to be tangling with public employee unions going forward."

[alp227]

29. thanks to the Koch Bros and Citizens United, there's little diff between D's and R's n/t

[DesertDiamond]

30. I can hear his father rolling over in his grave.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

33. Me, too! That's because he's still alive!

[Ramsey]

31. Another politician bought and paid for. This one just happens to be Democrat.

Did we really think the Koch brothers would only donate to GOPers? That kind of thinking would hardly work in a state like New York.

[conspirator]

34. You should have elected Jimmy McMillan nt

[Michael J]

35. That's Terrible News

So the Kochs actually gave more to Cuomo's campaign than they did to that parasite Walker's! That is really sick. There is essentially no difference between the Democrats and Republicans.

[annabanana]

36. Cuomo wouldn't have looked so good last November if Paladino

hadn't been such a raging nutjob.

[spanone]

37. there is a pattern developing across this nation and it's not good.

there will be a breaking point

[StarsInHerHair]

38. I dreamed the other night of a ship, one that looked like artists' drawings

of Noah's Ark, only on its roof it had the words "American Education", & was in a very windy, rainy storm at sea. The ability to understand the world around them is crucial to a Democratic Nation, we must choose our "leaders", after all...Now I heard that Gov lePaige I think, has slipped & said he's against Child Labor Laws.........THAT is what I've been warning about. They're after making the U.S. into a Third World