All I want to know is this. Last year NYC received 37% of state school aid plus back door school aid such as STAR. Including Spitzer's new checks, what will the share be this year? Spitzer's proposal was 37% for NYC, same as last year, and 14.1% for Long Island, same as last year. If those figures change, that should be the only story. THE ONLY STORY. The rest is PR.
Remember, NYC residents pay more than 40% of all state taxes paid by state residents. Forget the city's share of business taxes. After 30 years of harm to New York City's children, Governor Spitzer proposed that New York City's taxpayers would be required to pay more for education in NYC, and also have more money redistributed to the rest of the state, where the children are better off.
Remember too that NYC's state legislators have voted for budget that shortchange NYC on school aid year after year, in exchange for high spending on Medicaid — much of which is paid for by the city itself in local taxes. To pay for more school aid and back door school aid statewide, Medicaid spending concentrated in the city will be cut. New York City's general revenue sharing will also be cut. Overall, city residents lost under the Governor's proposal.
So did we do better, or worse, than in the last year of Pataki on education? I don't what to hear about school aid that is called school aid alone. I want to hear about it all. And I don't want to hear about anything else.