Warnings from Massachusetts; Teachers Fight Back

The WFP’s joint campaign with the Alliance for Quality Education against the tax cap gimmick continues. From Gannett:

In an effort to convince the state Assembly to oppose a cap, which was adopted by the Senate last week, education-advocacy groups reissued a 2008 report first released in June on the negative results of the cap in Massachusetts. The plan calls for limiting school tax increases to 4 percent a year or 120 percent of the inflation rate, whichever is less.

Iris Lav, from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, and author of that report (“Hidden Consequences: Lessons from Massachusetts for States Considering a Property Tax Cap”) added:

"A cap is likely to cause a lot more damage in New York than it did in Massachusetts," Lav said, "New York lacks some of the advantages Massachusetts had when Proposition 2 1/2 was implemented."

Here’s the rub: the cap in Massachusetts led to greater disparities between wealthy and working class schools and in many cases led to laid off teachers and reduced services. Further damage was only prevented because, as Lav points out, Massachusetts increased state aid to its schools by billions. A booming economy helped pay for it.

But with New York teetering toward a recession, the question for supporters of a cap in New York is simple: where will the lost revenue our schools need to provide quality education come from?

In California, revenue lost to the tax cap was never replaced, and schools went from among the best in the nation to among the worst.

That’s the fate the WFP and education advocates are fighting to avoid.

Yesterday, the WFP announced the escalation of the campaign with mail to 200,000 New Yorkers in targeted Assembly districts, asking them to tell their Assemblymember to vote no the tax cap gimmick.

Meanwhile, the New York State United Teachers un-endorsed dozens of State Senators who voted for Gov. Paterson’s irresponsible tax cap. From the Albany Times Union:

The state's largest teachers union is withholding endorsements from 38 senators who voted earlier this month for Gov. David Paterson's proposal to place a 4 percent annual cap on the growth of school taxes.

"They've made a choice to choose political expediency," New York State United Teachers President Richard Iannuzzi said of the mostly Republican senators.

Let’s hope the Assembly considers the consequences for New York’s children before making the wrong choice too.