Dear Editor,

Trying to follow the money trail that runs from corporate donors to Sen. Dave Valesky and the recently disbanded Independent Democratic Caucus (IDC) is a bit like trying to figure out which of the landed gentry and their high-end lawns are responsible for turning Skaneateles Lake into toxic goo.

In the end, this much is clear: the more money that NYC real estate developers pour into the coffers of upstate representatives, the more endangered Syracuse’s vital resources become.

The city of Syracuse needs a true advocate in the New York Senate, one who, for example, will fight for school aid, a commitment on which the Senator has defaulted. Fortunately, Rachel May, a life-long educator, has stepped up to run against the IDC’s co-founder and his double-dealing. Rachel May knows it’s well past time to bring home the funds that Syracuse children need and deserve.

In the recent Campbell Conversations, May offered a clear and reasonable proposal to help secure some of those school funds: apply a very small tax on those earning more than $500,000 a year. Valesky objected on the grounds that we’re a high tax state, and more taxes would drive people away. In other words, it’s okay to sacrifice the education of thousands of city children to protect a small group of the richest among us.

A leader who is willing to hurt kids won’t blink when it comes to hurting the people who teach them. Surely, teachers in central New York won’t soon forget that Valesky stood by while the Republican Party poisoned a bill that would have finally ended the state’s reliance on children’s test scores to judge teachers. As Valesky takes receipt of yet another contribution from the Real Estate Board of NY—$16,500—I hope that central New York teachers will vote for the interests they share with their students.

It’s time that the vanishing middle class make a choice: stand in solidarity with the most exploited or meet the same fate. A vote for Rachel May is a vote for Syracuse.

Sincerely,

Maureen F. Curtin

 

Published on September 9, 2018 at 7:57 pm