March 17, 2005 10:12 PM

I loved this article.  Having driven 5 hours today to and from Albany to observe the Joint Conference of the Assembly and Senate on the Elementary and Secondary Education budget, I drove home wondering exactly what you described:  am I a righteous hypocrite, a limousine liberal ( I don't think a petty scold), or a naive dogooder, or if none of the above why would I go up to observe and lobby regarding our state's donation to public school finance?  With all the infighting within NYC over governance, curriculum, and stadiums, few NYC advocates were there.  I felt that someone had to be there to say that it is not fair to continue to skew the funding formula toward those districts that need less state assistance.  
 
In one notable policy initiative, our State Senate decided in its recently proposed education bill that it was more important to add $990 million to statewide property tax rebates under the STAR program than to fund schools statewide more adequately.  They believe that their conference of Senate representatives likes the way school finance is now distributed very well as is--just give those suburbs more of what they have now and don't worry about any poorer urban or rural areas. 
 
Let's hope that your column continues to encourage power challengers; they are needed indeed. 
 
M.B.
LWVoters