Eliminate the GEA

“Schools prepare to fight for more state aid” cries the headline article in today's (1/19/2016) Buffalo News. This article is about the GEA or “Gap Elimination Adjustment.” This was a “fiscal gimmick” (BN's words) to balance the state budget on the backs of the schools. More accurately, on the backs of our students. Most realistically, on the back of our future.

The GEA was a cut in state aid by the Cuomo Administration to balance the state budget after handing out all sorts of corporate welfare (read “tax breaks to corporations that don't need it” or as “bribes to corporations to relocate their business to NYS.”

On top of this fiscal trickery was a 2% tax cap on schools – Every year during budgeting time the school districts could not present a budget that was 2% larger than the previous year. They could, but they needed a super-majority vote to implement the budget. A difficult task, even in the most upscale districts.

What did this mean for education? It meant that districts had to cut teaching positions and eliminate programs in order to stay under “the cap.” It meant that there would be more students in each class, which research shows leads to lower achievement by those students. It also meant that districts had less money to maintain buildings and buses. Athletic programs were cut, as well as art and music programs..

Plain and simple: Students lost.

Now the GEA is no longer needed. Actually it was never needed. Gov. “Status” Cuomo should have canned the corporate welfare. But that would mean biting the had that funds and feeds him, so that would never happen.

Now schools are trying to get that money back. And fast. They need it. Upscale and poor alike. Urban, suburban, and rural.

And Cuomo wants to dole it out slowly – Over a two year period.

Our students have suffered enough. They have suffered with the elimination of teachers and classes that they need to succeed in college or whatever post-high school track they take. Colleges are complaining that students are not ready and that remedial programs are needed just to get students ready for college. Students are complaining that they don't have the courses that they need (or want) and that class sizes are too big. Two sides of the same coin in my book. Same cause.

Cuomo knows this and is using the poor performance on state mandated tests to bludgeon teachers and administrators as failures. He wants to use the poor test scores as a way to privatize schools so that his Wall Street financiers can make a profit off of public education. Never mind that no proof exists that privatized charter schools perform any better than public schools. In many cases, they perform worse and their students are no more ready for college than public school students.

Districts superintendents and administrators are correct in demanding that Gov. Cuomo release all the funding now. Our students have lost too much and our future – which is dependent upon them – is at stake.

Socialists demand:

1. Elimination of the GEA and full restoration of all funds to school districts. This money was taken over a 5 year period. It is fair to give the state 5 years to pay it back. Anything over 5 years is paid back with interest. Let the corporations that received all the unnecessary tax breaks pick up the tab.

2. An end to the 2% school tax cap. This is to be funded by an elimination of all tax breaks to large corporations and a Wall Street transaction tax. Every transaction on Wall Street would be taxed at .1% and all monies collected are to be distributed to school districts based upon need.

3. An end to all public funding of private charter schools. If the taxpayers are paying for education at a school, then they have a right to elect a board to oversee the school.

4, An end to all state mandated test and punish procedures. This turns students off from learning and, therefore, off from achievement. Use portfolio based assessments instead. These give a bigger picture of all a student is capable of.

We need an education system that serves the needs and interests of our students. A return of all GEA monies and other reforms by the state will help to repair some of the damage that was done and prevent more from being inflicted upon our students and our future.