“Do me a favor” is actually the phrase a number of locals use when they send postcards to their members asking for help on campaigns. We are now three weeks away from when most voters across the state vote on local school budgets. (Remember the largest cities do not submit school budgets to residents.) And [...]

That’s the question at least 12 school districts are asking as they prepare school budgets for the May 15 vote. Especially considering that the tax cap was highly touted as a way to provide relief for taxpayers, yet still provide an opportunity for those districts that want to exceed it to do so. You’ll find [...]

Most school districts draft their budgets this month. (I have yet to hear of a single district that is not cutting something: from clerical and food service positions to Advanced Placement programs, to closing schools, the list of cuts goes on and on. Here’s a central New York roundup. Here’s a link to cuts at the [...]

If you want to see the weary face of what ongoing state budget cuts to schools looks like, then look no further than  Rebecca Horwitz. An English as a Second Language teacher in Rondout Valley for seven years, she was laid off last year. Wednesday, she came to Albany to share her time and story [...]

Unions across the state are telling us about the budget cuts their districts are facing. Hearing about cuts makes me think of cards. Hearing about just the three cases I dealt with yesterday makes me realize these schools have a cold deck. (For the non-card players, that means the cards are specifically rigged against them. [...]

I’m fighting with myself to not type the line that start with “We” and end with “so.” We knew the tax cap was bad for schools and communities. We knew it back on June 30. Now districts across the state are finding just how bad it is. Earlier this week I tweeted a number of [...]

Today marks 13 weeks before most school districts across the state put their budgets up for a vote. You may recall this post about the importance of setting up a committee to spread around the GOTV workload. The tip for you this week is to look outside your local union for help in getting your budget [...]

It’s 14 weeks before voters in most school districts across the state vote on school budgets. May 15 will be here in the blink of an eye. Heck my backyard already looks like spring with daffodil up 3 to 4 inches! So last week was the blog post about how important it is to identify people who [...]

It’s 15 weeks before voters in most school districts across the state vote on school budgets. Voters in this state overwhelmingly support their public schools. (This is just one of the many positive articles from last year when 93 percent of budgets passed on the first try.) This year could be different as this year [...]

These are tough financial times for all of us. It’s so bad most New Yorker’s are too poor to retire. They must keep on working. Here’s a link to what one school district is doing to get members involved. Scroll down a bit to find the video. The numbers are appalling about what the Cleveland [...]