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EPP Letter

 
                                                                                                March 22, 2005
Assemblymember Sheldon Silver
Majority Speaker
NYS Assembly
932 Legislative Office Building
Albany, NY 12248
 
Dear Majority Speaker Silver::
 
            We are writing to you on behalf of the Educational Priorities Panel to urge that the state fund an emergency capital program to reduce severe student overcrowding in New York City.
 
The Educational Priorities Panel supports the plaintiffs’ BRICKS proposal for $9.25 billion in state capital funding for New York City school facilities. We realize that at this time there is no consensus around funding levels to implement the court’s ruling in the Campaign for Fiscal Equity lawsuit and that the Governor may file an additional appeal to the court’s decision. EPP is deeply concerned about the failure of the state to reform its education funding system.
 
Students, packed together like sardines, should not be made to wait out this lengthy process. Overcrowding, especially at the high school level, has reached such proportions that it is negatively affecting the academic performance of students as well as creating disciplinary problems. EPP and other civic organizations are very concerned about these “melt down” schools that, up until recently, offered better-than-average educational programs. The quality of these high schools, such as A. Phillip Randolph, Norman Thomas, Edward R. Murrow, Midwood, John F. Kennedy, Forest Hills, Boys and Girls,  and Art & Design, is at grave risk.
 
This “meltdown” of good schools must be stopped. Students cannot learn in conditions of severe overcrowding. More schools in New York City must be created as soon as possible. EPP asks that, at a minimum, $200 million to $300 million be set aside by the state in FY ’05 for payment of principal and interest for an emergency capital program to create more schools in New York City. Some of these funds could also be applied to leasing, so that new schools can open by the beginning of the 2005-06 school year.
 
It will take several years until city students begin to have the classroom space that is the norm for schools in the rest of the state. The most immediate issue is not this school facilities gap, but the urgent need to prevent the further deterioration of student performance and discipline that severe overcrowding is creating in these “meltdown” schools. Please take emergency action as soon as possible to help students in these “meltdown” schools.
 
                                                                                    Sincerely,
 
 
Marilyn Braveman                                                                  Noreen Connell
Chairperson                                                                             Executive Director