I’m Calling You Out, Albany

I left school yesterday, picked up all three kids, ran to michaels crafts store for poster boards, dropped off two kids, picked up dinner, ate, then worked for four hours on signs for the rally on Saturday.

I was both disgusted and hysterical.

Hysterical at some of my signs.

Disgusted when I saw just how unfair this funding formula is to my kids. I found a website where I can check how much districts are owed from NYS.

I typed in Riverhead and there it was…

$31 million dollars.

Then I typed in surrounding districts.

$0.

What the what?

I got really upset when I was thinking of the skin color of the majority of the students at those other districts.

Yup.

White kids.

Riverhead?

We are a melting pot.

You want to think that Albany cares for kids of all colors and treats them all the same… but then again, it’s only 2020.

That’s right, Albany.

That’s right, Cuomo, Palumbo, Thiele, LaValle.

I’m calling you ALL out.

Talk is cheap.

Education is expensive, and you have not done NEARLY enough to help my town.

Hell, I am not asking for MORE money.

I’m asking for WHAT YOU OWE US.

$31,000,000 dollars.

The last time I made signs and rallied was when I went and spoke up against testing.

Commissioner John King was the focus of my signs. He left soon after. It took some time, but people woke up to how the politicians were screwing public education and they began to refuse the tests.

I emailed, made phone calls, and sent letters.

We’ve been fighting for years about the state aid funding formula as well.

In Riverhead, we also get extra screwed because of the charter school. That school takes millions away from us each year. We have kids leave, go there, then they inevitably come back and are usually farther behind than when they left us. Parents are also using it for child care because of the longer day.

So not only are we owed money, we have money siphoned off from us.

Let’s add in the sudden increase we’ve had in students and the fact that my son is now in a school where classes have 30 kids in a class…. in fifth grade.

Size matters, people.

My daughter at the high school has trouble making it through the hallway.

We deserve better.

We deserve what all the other districts around us have…

Support and funding from the state.

I’m looking at YOU, Albany.

How do we have money to give people Mets tickets to show up to court, money when you are released from Jail for food, yet don’t have money for children?

How about we put more funding in the front end of their lives so they don’t end up in jail.

Let’s stop the prison pipeline and fix this system.

$31 Million.

We demand you pay us back.

I’ll never forget when we went to the Viking Swim Meet upstate with the kids. A small town…with a HUGE pool and track and shiny big beautiful building. Mine and robs jaws dropped. How did this tiny little upstate town have such a gorgeous facility? There’s a lot more like it too. Albany uses Long Island as their cash cow, and then ignores us… especially if you live where everyone’s skin color is a different shade.

I’m calling you out, Albany.

I’m sharing this on my blog, which is read all over the world. I had over 55,000 visitors last year. Maybe God placed me in the cancer situation so the platform could be bigger. I’m going with that.

I hope to share a follow up that the rally this Saturday at 12:00 Riverhead middle school was huge. Media covered it and politicians were ashamed. They found the money they OWE us and gave us a check.

And if they don’t?

The signs I made last night will be nothing compared to the signs I’ll make.