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Alice Green 518 489-9491
Yvonne Rothenberg 315 446-9866
MariaWhittington 315 471-7603
Mark Dunlea 518 286-3411
Green Party Calls for Increase in Welfare Grants;
Alice Green Demands "Education, Not Incarceration"
The Green Party took its Save NY's Kids campaign to Syracuse today,
where
it called for an increase in welfare benefits to bring families above
the
poverty line and for school finance reform to insure good schools in all
communities.
Green Party Lt. Gov. candidate Alice Green led a contingent of five
Green
Party candidates on a visit to the Dr. Martin Luther King School in
Syracuse, an elementary school that has been waiting for needed
renovations
for more than a decade. The school has problems with falling ceilings,
rodent infestation, and the lack of lunch facilities, which requires
that
students to eat at their school desks. This year the King school was
told
again to wait until next year for renovations. The Syracuse School
District
suffered an $8 million budget cut this year, necessitating cuts of more
than 200 teachers, the program for pregnant and parenting mothers, the
program for advanced students, and cuts in athletics and library hours.
"How could the Democrats and Republicans stand by and let this happen?
Why
is there a brand new $60 million jail downtown while every year the Dr.
King school is told to wait another year for renovations? Since 1980,
state
spending on prisons has increased at more than twice the rate of
spending
on schools. It seems the future they have planned for our children is
jails,
not jobs. I want the priorities reversed. If we are going to save New
York's kids, we need to emphasize education, not incarceration,"
declared Dr. Green, who has a Ph.D. in criminal justice and masters
degrees in education and social work.
Green joined with the Syracuse Green candidates for federal and state
officE in calling for a welfare grant increase.
Maria Whittington, the Green candidate for the 119th district assembly
seat, said, "Poverty is the most immediate and critical children's issue
and it can be resolved simply by an act of the state legislature. Over
25% of New York's children live below the poverty level and in Syracuse
the child
poverty rate is up to 40%. Two-thirds of welfare participants are
children.
But the typical welfare grant is only 52% of the federal poverty level
and
it has not been raised since 1990 even though it was below poverty then.
It's an outrage that it is New York's policy to maintain children in
such
extreme poverty. For the sake of so many children in Syracuse and New
York,
the state legislature must enact a raise in welfare grants to bring
children above the poverty level."
"Along with raising the welfare grant, the New York legislature should
enact an Economic Bill of Rights," added David Linton, the Green
candidate for the 120th district assembly seat. "The Greens goal is not
just to raise welfare so that people just survive on it. We want to help
people advance to
economic self-reliance. That means we need an Economic Bill of Rights,
including a public jobs program to insure the right to a job at a living
wage, increased funding for child care to insure child care is
affordable
to all who need it, and a higher minimum wage so working people can
support
their families," said Linton.
The Green Party candidates also called for school finance reforms. The
Green Party candidate for Comptroller, Howie Hawkins, said, "The
reliance on the property tax to fund schools dooms property poor cities
like Syracuse to
high property tax rates and underfunded schools. We need a wholesale
reform
of the school financing system. The regressive property tax has
low-income
renters and middle-income homeowners paying more of their income in
property taxes than people with high incomes. Schools should be funded
out of a progressive statewide income tax with money distributed to
local school
districts by a clear and simple formula that funds all schools at a high
common standard."
Yvonne Rothenberg, the Green Party candidate for Congress in the 25th
district, called for federal legislation to require that states provide
equitable school funding systems. "Parents and concerned citizens
seeking
equitable school funding have sued New York and many other states. But
it
takes years for these cases to make their way through the courts. We
need
immediate federal legislation to require equitable funding if we want to
avoid losing another generation of kids in inadequate, underfunded
schools," Rothenberg stated.
Other planks in the Green Party's Save NY's Kids platform call for state
supplements to the federal food stamp program and the Women, Infants,
and
Children food program, universal health care, affordable housing for
all,
and strong children's environmental health measures to reduce exposure
to
the four major pollutants harming children: pesticides, lead, tobacco
smoke, and groundwater contamination.
The Green Party's is committed to the principles of ecology, grassroots
democracy, nonviolence, and social and economic justice.
--
Need to Know what makes Rosaphilia Tick?
click on: http://www.interport.net/~rugosa/index.html
Better Living Thru Better Living
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Alice Green 518 489-9491
Yvonne Rothenberg 315 446-9866
MariaWhittington 315 471-7603
Mark Dunlea 518 286-3411
Green Party Calls
for Increase in Welfare Grants;
Alice Green Demands "Education,
Not Incarceration"
The Green Party took its Save NY's Kids
campaign to Syracuse today, where
it called for an increase in welfare benefits
to bring families above the
poverty line and for school finance reform
to insure good schools in all
communities.
Green Party Lt. Gov. candidate Alice Green
led a contingent of five Green
Party candidates on a visit to the Dr.
Martin Luther King School in
Syracuse, an elementary school that has
been waiting for needed renovations
for more than a decade. The school has
problems with falling ceilings,
rodent infestation, and the lack of lunch
facilities, which requires that
students to eat at their school desks.
This year the King school was told
again to wait until next year for renovations.
The Syracuse School District
suffered an $8 million budget cut this
year, necessitating cuts of more
than 200 teachers, the program for pregnant
and parenting mothers, the program for advanced students, and cuts in athletics
and library hours.
"How could the Democrats and Republicans
stand by and let this happen? Why
is there a brand new $60 million jail
downtown while every year the Dr.
King school is told to wait another year
for renovations? Since 1980, state
spending on prisons has increased at more
than twice the rate of spending
on schools. It seems the future they have
planned for our children is jails,
not jobs. I want the priorities reversed.
If we are going to save New
York's kids, we need to emphasize education,
not incarceration," declared Dr. Green, who has a Ph.D. in criminal justice
and masters degrees in education and social work.
Green joined with the Syracuse Green candidates
for federal and state
officE in calling for a welfare grant
increase.
Maria Whittington, the Green candidate
for the 119th district assembly
seat, said, "Poverty is the most immediate
and critical children's issue and it can be resolved simply by an act of
the state legislature. Over 25% of New York's children live below the poverty
level and in Syracuse the child
poverty rate is up to 40%. Two-thirds
of welfare participants are children.
But the typical welfare grant is only
52% of the federal poverty level and
it has not been raised since 1990 even
though it was below poverty then.
It's an outrage that it is New York's
policy to maintain children in such
extreme poverty. For the sake of so many
children in Syracuse and New York,
the state legislature must enact a raise
in welfare grants to bring
children above the poverty level."
"Along with raising the welfare grant,
the New York legislature should
enact an Economic Bill of Rights," added
David Linton, the Green candidate for the 120th district assembly seat.
"The Greens goal is not just to raise welfare so that people just survive
on it. We want to help people advance to
economic self-reliance. That means we
need an Economic Bill of Rights,
including a public jobs program to insure
the right to a job at a living
wage, increased funding for child care
to insure child care is affordable
to all who need it, and a higher minimum
wage so working people can support
their families," said Linton.
The Green Party candidates also called
for school finance reforms. The
Green Party candidate for Comptroller,
Howie Hawkins, said, "The reliance on the property tax to fund schools
dooms property poor cities like Syracuse to
high property tax rates and underfunded
schools. We need a wholesale reform
of the school financing system. The regressive
property tax has low-income
renters and middle-income homeowners paying
more of their income in
property taxes than people with high incomes.
Schools should be funded out of a progressive statewide income tax with
money distributed to local school
districts by a clear and simple formula
that funds all schools at a high
common standard."
Yvonne Rothenberg, the Green Party candidate
for Congress in the 25th
district, called for federal legislation
to require that states provide
equitable school funding systems. "Parents
and concerned citizens seeking
equitable school funding have sued New
York and many other states. But it
takes years for these cases to make their
way through the courts. We need
immediate federal legislation to require
equitable funding if we want to
avoid losing another generation of kids
in inadequate, underfunded
schools," Rothenberg stated.
Other planks in the Green Party's Save
NY's Kids platform call for state
supplements to the federal food stamp
program and the Women, Infants, and
Children food program, universal health
care, affordable housing for all,
and strong children's environmental health
measures to reduce exposure to
the four major pollutants harming children:
pesticides, lead, tobacco
smoke, and groundwater contamination.
The Green Party's is committed to the principles
of ecology, grassroots
democracy, nonviolence, and social and
economic justice.
--
Need to Know what makes Rosaphilia
Tick?
click on: http://www.interport.net/~rugosa/index.html
Better
Living Thru Better Living
--------------0422668E48C80971F30AB3E7--