Latest News and Comment from Education

Monday, July 27, 2020

What could possibly go wrong? | Live Long and Prosper

What could possibly go wrong? | Live Long and Prosper

What could possibly go wrong?



School is ready to start and the education world is focused on what classes will look like.
The decision to open schools is difficult for several reasons.
  • Kids need to be in school. Online classes don’t reach all students. Some haven’t got the hardware. Some haven’t got sufficient internet access. Some can’t focus on a screen. Some have needs that can’t be met without in-person classrooms. Some are too young to stay home alone and have parents who need to go to work.
  • But in-person education can be dangerous right now. Some students are at-risk for the virus because of immune system issues or other pre-existing conditions. Some have elderly parents and grandparents in their homes; If they bring home COVID-19 it could be fatal to family members. Schools don’t exist in a vacuum. Teachers and other staff members might be susceptible to COVID-19.
  • In-person education will be more expensive and states have less money to work with. Who will pay for extra cleaning supplies? Who will pay for personal protective equipment for teachers, staff, and students? Will schools need additional buses to transport students while keeping them distant from each other? Where will substitutes come from if and when teachers need time off?
Schools will need to balance the relative safety of students staying home with the disadvantages of learning online. They’ll have to balance the benefits of in- CONTINUE READING: What could possibly go wrong? | Live Long and Prosper

Some Countries Reopened Schools. What Did They Learn About Kids and Covid? | WIRED

Some Countries Reopened Schools. What Did They Learn About Kids and Covid? | WIRED

Some Countries Reopened Schools. What Did They Learn About Kids and Covid?
Studies from around the world suggest that success depends on class size, distancing, the age of the students, and how prevalent the virus is locally


AS SCHOOL OFFICIALS try to figure out whether to open classrooms this fall, the science they need to make these tough choices is still evolving. A few things are clear: That most kids don’t become as seriously ill from Covid-19 as adults, and have much lower fatality rates. That’s according to data from the US and China published by the Centers for Disease Control.
sanitation workers cleaning stairs

Everything You Need to Know About the Coronavirus

Here's all the WIRED coverage in one place, from how to keep your children entertained to how this outbreak is affecting the economy. 
But the question of how likely children are to spread it to teachers, staff and other students still hasn’t been settled. One large new study from South Korea found children under the age of 10 appear to not transmit the virus very well. While it's not exactly clear why, the pediatric infectious disease experts contacted by WIRED say that it's perhaps because young children expel less air that contains the virus and are shorter, so any potential respiratory droplets are less likely to reach adults. A study published in April by researchers at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston suggests that younger kids haven’t developed the molecular keys that the virus exploits to enter the body and wreak havoc on the respiratory system, microscopic structures known as ACE2 receptors.
But older students are more like adults in their ability to transmit the virus, according to the South Korea study, which makes school opening decisions tougher. Should administrators allow only elementary students to attend in person, while middle and high schoolers stay online at home? If they do, will younger children be able to keep their masks on all day or stay six feet apart? What about the psychological effects of continued isolation on teens, who many parents believe are already racking up too much screen time during the pandemic CONTINUE READING: Some Countries Reopened Schools. What Did They Learn About Kids and Covid? | WIRED

Russ on Reading: The Read Along: Assisted Reading for the Vulnerable Reader

Russ on Reading: The Read Along: Assisted Reading for the Vulnerable Reader'

The Read Along: Assisted Reading for the Vulnerable Reader



In a post two weeks ago, Independent Reading in a Pandemic, I suggested that with all the problems the pandemic was causing, one positive was that it provided time for kids to do extended independent reading. One parent responded by asking, "What should my dyslexic daughter do, look at her books and cry?" Fair enough question. Many of my colleagues responded by suggesting this mother get her daughter listening to audio books. This is great advice. As my colleague, Stu Bloom suggested, apps like Hoopla and Libby connect students to local public libraries and access to audio books. For those who can afford it, Amazon now has an Immersion Reading Program which allows you to listen and read along on a Kindle or Smartphone while the device tracks the words.


While Amazon may call it "Immersion Reading", I prefer the term Carol Chomsky coined in her classic 1976 article, After Decoding, What?, "assisted reading." Chomsky wrote about her work with a group of third grade students who had had plenty of phonics instruction, but had not developed any fluency in their reading. She had the children read story books repeatedly while they listened to the story being read aloud on tape. She wanted the children to read the books over and over again until they could read them back to her fluently without assistance. Chomsky was searching for a method that would "capture their attention and make large amounts of textual material available" (p. 288). She determined that what these CONTINUE READING: Russ on Reading: The Read Along: Assisted Reading for the Vulnerable Reader'

The Difference between “Complicated” and “Complex” Matters (Yet Again) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

The Difference between “Complicated” and “Complex” Matters (Yet Again) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

The Difference between “Complicated” and “Complex” Matters (Yet Again)



Ten years ago I posted my thoughts and ideas (many of which I borrowed) on the differences between complicated and complex organizations and why it mattered when it came to schools. The post turned out to be one of the most read of the nearly 1400 I have written since beginning this blog in 2009.
I bring it back for an encore because of Covid-19. In the past five months since lock-downs rippled across the nation, schools have been closed. In the past two weeks, the President wanted schools to re-open with face-to-face instruction and some districts moved in that direction. But with another upsurge of the coronavirus in many states, most school boards have fallen back to remote instruction beginning in the fall. Too many unknowns about the virus, disease, and its effects on children and adults throw school boards and superintendents back to the first commandment of schooling: health and safety of those in schools.
This back-and-forth debate about schools re-opening underscores both the centrality of this institution to the social, economic, and political vitality of the nation but also it complexity. Thus a re-run of this post.
What’s the difference between sending a rocket to the moon and getting children CONTINUE READING: The Difference between “Complicated” and “Complex” Matters (Yet Again) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Schools Matter: Remote Learning Should Continue This Fall

Schools Matter: Remote Learning Should Continue This Fall

Remote Learning Should Continue This Fall



Remote Learning Should Continue This Fall in Tennessee

A growing body of evidence makes it increasingly clear that opening Tennessee schools this Fall represents an unwise and irresponsible political decision that will endanger staff, faculty, students, and students’ families. With a sophomore grandson chomping at the bit to get back with his friends and teachers at the L&N STEM Academy, I do not come to this conclusion lightly.  But I have to listen to the facts.

We know, in fact, that pediatricians agree that schools offer intellectual and social development opportunities that healthy kids require.  Even so, a spokesman for the American Academy of Pediatrics told Congress on July 23 that schools “really can’t open” in communities where Covid-19 remains widespread . Presently, the Washington Post ranks Tennessee 5th in the nation for new Covid infections per capita.

The facts tell us, too, that many working parents with elementary-aged children are stuck between a rock and a hard place when it comes to making sure their children are properly cared for during the work day. Too, there is ample pressure to re-open schools in hopes of producing good economic numbers in the fall that might resuscitate November election prospects for Trumpsters who have failed to provide the leadership required to manage the pandemic. 

Sadly, any short term economic and political gain from forced early re-opening is sure to further delay sustained economic recovery beyond November.  After all, the health of the economy is dependent upon the good health of its workers. Opening CONTINUE READING: Schools Matter: Remote Learning Should Continue This Fall

Please Open Schools - The Atlantic

Please Open Schools - The Atlantic

I Can’t Keep Doing This. Please Open the Schools.
The idea that I might have to continue to work while facilitating another subpar semester of virtual learning is almost too much to bear.




“I can’t keep doing this.” I hear that over and over from my friends with kids. Holding a job, parenting, and teaching all at once during the pandemic is a juggling act that no one was prepared to undertake, and it has brought working parents to the breaking point.
Many of us are now riddled with anxiety over whether we’ll send our kids back to school, even part-time, or keep them home. The idea that I might have to continue to work while facilitating another subpar semester of virtual learning is almost too much to bear. Even though COVID-19 cases have spiked where I live in Texas, I want to send my children back to school in the fall. I don’t want to have to repeat the spring, for my kids’ sake and my own. Schools simply need to find a way to make reopening safe.
I spent the first couple weeks of stay-at-home orders thinking: This will be tricky, but I’ve got it. After all, I homeschooled all four of my kids when they were younger, while I was working part-time. But I quickly discovered that overseeing virtual learning while working full-time is really nothing like homeschooling.
For one thing, I found it difficult to establish a routine. As a self-employed writer, my workload constantly changed, and my children’s schedules shifted too. Our district struggled for several weeks to streamline the school day. And don’t get me started about the technological problems. With four children in two different schools and at least 10 different teachers, my kids and I often had to access multiple online portals just to CONTINUE READING: Please Open Schools - The Atlantic

PROOF POINTS: Survey reveals stark rich-poor divide in how U.S. children were taught remotely during the spring school closures - The Hechinger Report

PROOF POINTS: Survey reveals stark rich-poor divide in how U.S. children were taught remotely during the spring school closures - The Hechinger Report
PROOF POINTS: Survey reveals stark rich-poor divide in how U.S. children were taught remotely during the spring school closures
Low-income children reviewed old material while high-income children learned new things



As the coronavirus pandemic spread through the country, a common (socially distanced) conversation among friends and families compared how many hours of remote learning kids were getting. Preliminary results from a new survey of school districts confirm what many parents learned through the Zoom grapevine. The number of hours your kids got varied wildly depending on where you happen to live. But the amount of time was not the only difference, according to a recent survey: the type of instruction students received also diverged dramatically.

Twenty-five percent of districts said children in kindergarten through second grade were supposed to receive more than three hours of remote instruction every day but another 25 percent of districts reported only one hour or less. The two-hour-a-day difference narrowed a bit in higher grades but even by high school, many students received 1.5 fewer instructional hours every day than others (3 hours vs. 4.5 hours). Over several months of school closures, the daily difference in hours added up to a lot of instructional time. My back-of-the-envelope calculation puts it at more than 100 hours. (My math: 2 hours a day x 5 days a week x 12 weeks of school closures = 120 hours.)

 “One key question is why these differences occur and what do these differences mean for students,” said Mike Garet, head of the survey team at the American Institutes of Research (AIR), a nonprofit research organization. AIR presented early results from its “National Survey of Public Education’s Response to COVID-19” at a virtual session of the Education Writers Association’s national seminar on July 22, 2020. AIR sent out surveys to more than 2,500 of the nation’s 13,500 school districts in May and plans to release results periodically to inform education policymakers during the pandemic. This early report represents a 19 percent response rate so far and includes data from nearly 500 districts across 49 states and covers a wide range of both urban and rural regions.

I was surprised to learn that the difference in instructional hours can’t be simply explained by poverty. When researchers diced the survey data up CONTINUE READING: PROOF POINTS: Survey reveals stark rich-poor divide in how U.S. children were taught remotely during the spring school closures - The Hechinger Report

Charter schools and management companies won at least $925 million in federal covid-19 funding ,data shows - The Washington Post

Charter schools and management companies won at least $925 million in federal covid-19 funding ,data shows - The Washington Post

Charter schools and their management companies won at least $925 million in federal coronavirus funding, data shows




The Paycheck Protection Program, or PPP, is a $660 billion business loan program established as part of the $2 trillion coronavirus economic stimulus legislation that Congress passed in the spring. PPP was aimed at helping certain small businesses, nonprofit organizations, sole proprietors and others stay in business during the economic downturn caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
The U.S. Small Business Administration administered the program, and recently the SBA and the Treasury Department released some data on what organizations won loans from the program and how much they received. (Some loans can be forgiven if the PPP money is spent on keeping employees on the payroll.)
The release of funding details sparked some controversy about whether some of the organizations that received funds should have gotten them, including public charter schools — which are publicly funded but privately operated — and some elite private schools. (A Washington Post database shows the data.)
Charter schools received emergency stimulus money from Congress from the same fund that traditional public schools did — but some charter schools decided to apply for PPP loans as well, saying that they are underfunded through regular funding formulas and had a right to seek more aid. Other charter schools chose not to apply for loans, saying it would be double-dipping in federal aid funds.
Among those charters that did were some that knew they didn’t actually need the money to maintain financial stability. For example, 2KUTV in Salt Lake City did an investigation into Utah charter schools taking PPP funding and found that they took a total of $7.9 million. It reported on a discussion at the June 25 meeting of the governing board of the Utah Military Academy, a charter with two campuses, in which an unidentified board member explained how the $1.15 million in PPP funding that the school was expecting would be spent.
The conversation, heard on audio tapes, went like this, according to the CBS affiliate: CONTINUE READING: Charter schools and management companies won at least $925 million in federal covid-19 funding ,data shows - The Washington Post

Alert for Scholars to sign Petition for retraction | Cloaking Inequity

Alert for Scholars to sign Petition for retraction | Cloaking Inequity

ALERT FOR SCHOLARS TO SIGN PETITION FOR RETRACTION





Over 600 signatures, representing all fields. Please consider signing! We won’t change Mead, but we can change the delivery of his work and get this commentary retracted! Scholars please consider signing!!! https://forms.gle/aMjgjwJiL6ajNBXD9
Dear Professor Lawrence M. Mead, the editorial board of “Society”, and Frank Vrancken Peeters, Chief Executive Officer of Springer:

We, a group of educators, scholars, researchers, advocates, and community leaders, writing to express concern regarding the recent commentary published by Professor Lawrence M. Mead in “Society,” expressing racially violent narratives directed at the Black and Latina/o/X community. We recognize the challenges we face are not monolithic, and that all of our struggles need to be highlighted on a global platform in order to bring resolution. We also recognize that Professor Meads commentary, imbued with hostility, is a reflection of historical beliefs about all Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) communities. The ideologies espoused by Professor Mead are reflective of the racist, anti-Black, patriarchal, hegemonic doctrines perpetuated in society, PreK-12, and in higher education, alike. As a community, granted the power to educate and inform, who have worked diligently to become experts in our own respective ways, we have the responsibility to do so in a manner that progresses equity for those communities historically and consistently oppressed. We have a social and professional responsibility to help mend the wounds of racial violence and oppression. We have a responsibility to dismantle structural barriers while creating new systems of resistance and acceptance that celebrate and promote justice. As teachers, it is our responsibility to curate a message of justice, equity, diversity, inclusion, and access so that the bigotry so normalized in our society may no longer influence public policy.

Professor Meads’ commentary published July 21st, 2020 in “Society” perpetuates a long tradition of structural racism that blames BIPOC communities for the prevalence of poverty, crime, and unemployment, as a function of cultural pathology. This narrative follows a trend set by Oscar Lewis, and Daniel Patrick Moynihan, discredited through empiricism, tenacious despite the evidence presented by scholars including David C. Berliner, Paul Gorski, Darrick Hamilton, Andrew Hanson, Ibram X. Kendi, Gloria Ladson-Billings, Ray McDermott, Luis Moll, Jan Ondrich, Bree Picower, Katherine Rodela, Dave Stovall, Eve Tuck, Shirin Vossoughi and countless others. “Society”, however, despite publicly taking a stance against untrue statements, and purporting to publish “new ideas and research findings,” published this commentary which not only presents outdated ideas about society, culture, and the BIPOC community, but worse, the journal’s decision directly contributes to the continued detriment of the BIPOC community in an increasingly xenophobic United States. Furthermore, we want to contextualize the commentary, and “Society’s” publication, against the current Civil Rights / Civil Advocacy movement, the summer of solidarity statements, and admonish both the commentary and its publication as an act of complicity with racial violence.

We recognize Professor Mead has previously authored racially violent scholarship with little to no evidence supporting his most egregious claims. The July 2020 commentary is part of a litany of work that includes 54 publications and many books that are almost entirely devoid of the necessary data and empiricism customary of our field. “Society” has published these baseless and abhorrent opinions before, by Professor Mead, most recently in 2018. This scholarship is anchored in the ideals of white settler colonialism, rationalizing dangerous and false narratives of the BIPOC community, steeped in anti-Blackness. The culture of poverty narrative, and its unsupported troupes, continue to plague the academy. As a response, the academic community has presented many stellar empirical arguments that refute Professor Meads suppositions, and the culture of poverty. The work repudiating a culture of poverty is consistently vetted by multiple reviewers, scrutinized for its use of language, clarity, and tone. The data, methodology, analysis, statistical tools, and statistical code are dissected in a manner that has called for full transparency. This work exists in multiple disciplines including economics, education, epidemiology, history, medicine, public health, sociology, politics, psychology, public policy, and social work amongst others. Professor Mead however presents a commentary with no evidence, and few references, a deviation from the normative academic publishing process.

Violent actions often follow deficit narratives, and in our society, this has led to the murder of immeasurable innocent community members including George Floyd, Emmitt Till, Breonna Taylor, Malice Wayne Green, Eric Garner, Michael Brown, Freddy Gray, Tamir Rice, Trayvon Martin, Sandra Bland, Atatiana Jefferson, Laquan McDonald, Philando Castile, Layleen Polanco, Ahmaud Arbery, and violence against the transgender and Gender Non-Conforming Community. Deficit narratives have led to decreased social support, continued segregation, over-policing, and a state of colorblindness and neutrality that is dangerous. We understand that as a scholarly outlet “Society” must maintain a semblance of neutrality but, we will not concede that neutrality is inclusive of narratives that have been time and again proven false. Concurrently we wish to explicitly state that the commentary by Professor Mead is an act of injustice and invoke the sentiment of Archbishop Tutu recognizing that neutrality in the face of injustice is an act of consenting oppression. Given the commentary’s explicit racism, we respectfully ask that “Society” immediately retract the commentary, and that the journal issue an apology to the BIPOC community, and the communities negatively impacted by these narratives. We also ask for the opportunity to publish a commentary that contextualizes the covertly racist practices, and structures, that permit the publication of work centered in the culture of poverty ideology.

As educators, scholars, researchers, advocates, and community leaders we are committed to civil rights, committed to human rights, and committed to dismantling white supremacy in all its forms. We recognize that white supremacy has led to inequity and horrific violence. “Society,” and Professor Mead, demonstrate that outdated and odious suppositions about BIPOC still hold sway in the very academic circles that should be challenging, not strengthening, racism. As a group of community-focused advocates, we are committed to confronting racism and anti-Blackness, and would be culpable if we did not condemn this publication and hold the editorial board of “Society” responsible for publishing such irresponsible commentary in its journal.

In closing, we respectfully post the following critically important questions to the editorial board of “Society” and Springer: How many BIPOC serve on the journal’s editorial board? How many BIPOC scholars were asked to peer review the commentary? Were BIPOC scholars offered an opportunity to present a counter to the commentary? The answers to these questions will help elucidate the ways that academia in general and academic journals specifically serve to strengthen white supremacy.

Cordially,

Signatories: 07/26/2020 10:00pm (EST) 404 Signatories
Contact Person: DavĂ­d G. MartĂ­nez, Assistant Professor, University of South Carolina
Alert for Scholars to sign Petition for retraction | Cloaking Inequity

I Can’t Breathe, But You're Breathing Fine. We Need to Confront This! - Philly's 7th Ward

I Can’t Breathe, But You're Breathing Fine. We Need to Confront This! - Philly's 7th Ward

I CAN’T BREATHE, BUT YOU’RE BREATHING FINE. WE NEED TO CONFRONT THIS!



Growing up in South Central Los Angeles, I, like many black children, was raised by my single mother. Our fathers weren’t there for us; some by choice, and others in prison or dead. Since childhood, I have watched uniformed police abuse their power in poor neighborhoods. As a black man, I have learned to just shut up, put my head down, and put my hands up. My experience is not unique. Ask any black man. We have a shared experience. We have shared trauma. We are mistreated by the police. We are judged based on the color of our skin. We are seen as a threat simply for being. 
In the United States, black people are three times as likely to be killed by the police than white people. Racism, both overt and subtle, is woven into the fabric of our country. From slavery, Jim Crow, and segregation to housing and health inequities, the achievement gap in education, and the wage gap, racial discrimination is alive and well in the United States. Americans across the country are now bearing witness to the injustice and cruelty against people of color, that have existed for years, like never before. 
Divided Country
Our country is deeply divided, and the division is further highlighted by the CONTINUE READING: I Can’t Breathe, But You're Breathing Fine. We Need to Confront This! - Philly's 7th Ward

Charters grab between $1 to 2 BILLION in small business rescue funds. Act now. - Network For Public Education

Charters grab between $1 to 2 BILLION in small business rescue funds. Act now. - Network For Public Education

Charters grab between $1 to 2 BILLION in small business rescue funds. Act now.



Yes, you read that right. Those are actual quotes from the minutes of Utah Military Academy, which is under investigation for questionable ethical practices. That charter school received between $1 and 2 million dollars in PPP funds. They are not alone. Charter schools’ board minutes tell the same story time and again–we have enough funds, but we will still use our nonprofit status loophole to take Paycheck Protection Plan (PPP) funds intended for small businesses devastated by the pandemic.

Read our story in The Washington Post here and then share it on social media.

Our NPE team meticulously scoured the SBA database and identified charters, state by state, that received PPP funds.  The amount that we have identified is staggering. More than 1300 charter schools and their nonprofit or for-profit management companies secured between $925 million and $2.2 billion through the PPP. We provide a range, not from uncertainty but because the SBA chose not to report the exact amounts of the forgivable loans. Even this range is an underestimate. Excluded from our calculations is the sizeable number of PPP loans below $150,000, which the SBA has not disclosed. You can find our state by state list of charter schools and charter management organizations, along with each school’s PPP range on our website here.
How did this happen?
The National Alliance for Public Charter Schools (NAPCS) informed its members via email in March that it had successfully lobbied for charter schools to receive PPP funds and provided instructions on how such funding could be obtained. The blog that contained the contents of that email has been removed, however, you can find it in the internet archives here. Not only did the amply funded NAPCS encourage its members to apply, but the organization itself received its own PPP forgivable loan in the range of $350,000 and $1 million.
Now it’s time to take action.
Tell Congress to make sure these loans are immediately paid back. Employees of our small businesses desperately need the money. It is time to support our families, not “flush up” the fund balances of charter schools.
Send your email today by clicking here.

Mr. G for District 3: Chris Guerrieri's Education Matters: How other schools and districts are doing with the coronavirus, spoiler, not well

Mr. G for District 3: Chris Guerrieri's Education Matters: How other schools and districts are doing with the coronavirus, spoiler, not well

How other schools and districts are doing with the coronavirus, spoiler, not well



It is all anecdotal how other schools and districts are doing at this point, but what is happening is not pretty. Sadly it is probably a predictor of what's to come in Florida schools, and that's also not going to be pretty.

Private school closes after just reopening.

From Bussiness Insider,

A Pre-K-7 private school in North Carolina notified parents that a staff member had tested positive for the coronavirus a few days after it reopened for in-person teaching.

On Thursday, Thales Academy Raleigh told parents that a staff member had tested positive for the coronavirus, The News & Observer reported. The school stated that the staff member had been present at the school for training on Monday and interacted with at least 16 students, according to NBC affiliate WRAL.

The school emailed parents that "the staff member in training was asymptomatic" and "passed the temperature check," according to WRAL. The News & Observer reported that a spokeswoman stated the school would disinfect the classrooms with a Clorox Total 360 machine and resume in-person classes on Friday.

https://www.businessinsider.com/nc-private-school-reports-coronavirus-case-days-after-reopening-2020-7?fbclid=IwAR0PGLzDivFrfPRZvPWviXg828YbMgTMpj9wRlA_95LO0wAnH41bIccgVxQ

700 quarantined and 51 infected in Austin,


Austin's school district is dealing with hundreds of staff members who are being asked to quarantine due to CONTINUE READING: Mr. G for District 3: Chris Guerrieri's Education Matters: How other schools and districts are doing with the coronavirus, spoiler, not well

Heroes Act? Yes. And Budget Justice? Budget Justice? | JD2718

Heroes Act? Yes. And Budget Justice? Budget Justice? | JD2718

Heroes Act? Yes. And Budget Justice? Budget Justice?



Inequality. We know it exists. We, most of us, know it’s not right. But did you know there is a serious push to attack inequality, right here in New York State?
A package of legislation, collectively known as “Budget Justice” is in the State Senate and Assembly. Take a look:
List of Demands:
(1) Pass the Fund Our Future legislative package  to avoid +$10 billion dollars in budget cuts. Package includes:
  • Ultra-millionaires Tax (S.8164 / A.10364): Tax increases on those earning above $5 million, $10 million and $100 million per year
  • Billionaires Tax (S.8277 / A.10414): Outlaws unjust tax shelters to make billionaires pay income tax
  • Pied-a-terre Tax (S.44 / AA.4550): Sliding-scale tax on non-primary residences worth over five million dollars
  • Stock Transfer Tax (S.6203 / A.7791): Repeals rebate of .25% state sales tax on stock trades
  • Stock Buyback Tax (S.7629 / A.9748): New .5% sales tax on stock buybacks
  • Mezzanine Debt / Preferred Equity Tax (S.7231 / A.9041): Fee on mezzanine debt and preferred equity financing equal to mortgage recording tax
(2) Invest new revenue into addressing the systemic and accelerating inequities in our K-12 and Higher Education, Healthcare, Housing, and other Public Services as well as solutions to tackle growing crises like Climate Change and our crumbling Democracy.
(3) Pass the Budget Equity Act to amend Article VII of the New York State Constitution to give the CONTINUE READING: Heroes Act? Yes. And Budget Justice? Budget Justice? | JD2718