Welcome back to the Port Washington Special Education Parent Teacher Association!  Reminder to all parents that the 2008-2009 school year begins on Wednesday, September 3rd.  As always, we hope that you will find the information on this site helpful and informative.

Dear Parents and Interested Community Members,

 

On Tuesday the NYS Senate is poised to add 2 additional unfunded mandates to the taxpayers of Port Washington. The total may well be in excess of $500,000 and neither mandate does anything to improve the education of our children.

 

The first is a measure to shift part of the cost of Preschool Special Education from the County to our school district. From what I understand this can cost our budget as much as $400,000. This bill would allow the County to tout its ability to control spending, while in actuality just shift the burden to the district. It has been described to me as ‘ a bone’ being thrown to the County. This would in no way improve the quality of the services the children receive, nor would it reduce the costs of the services.

 

The other measure is a proposed employer tax on wages to help fund the MTA deficit. It would amount to over $167K to our district and again would do nothing for the children.

 

Rather than facing the financial crisis boldly and directly as the Federal Government is attempting, NYS seems to still be playing with smoke and mirrors by  hiding tax increases and increased spending demands by shifting the burden to local entities so that their hands appear clean.

 

It is time for this to stop. Please call Senator Johnson at 516-746-5923 and Assemblywoman Schim el at 516-482-6966

 

Thanks for your help

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