Dear New York State Legislators;

As is standard procedure in these manners, I must apologize for the mass email. However, there are many of you and time is limited.

I am writing to follow up on yesterday's events. I participated in Lobby Day yesterday but walked away feeling a bit disappointed. First off I felt the day was poorly planned as our group was not scheduled to meet with anyone who didn't already agree with us. Frankly, I did not travel to Albany to preach to the choir and there was little time left to seek out those who might take a minute to disagree with me. I'm taking that opportunity right now.

You know the numbers, but they bear repeating. New York city public schools need the money the courts have awarded them. $1.8 billion relieve overcrowding and solve some of the problems with our crumbling infrastructure and $1.4 billion in operational funds to keep good teachers in New York City schools, provide services that are desperately needed by working New York families, and provide opportunities for our children to entice them to stay in school, focus and grow in their love of learning. This money has been awarded to the people of New York City by the courts. I understand this could be a disturbing precedent for those in the legislature that the courts should be telling you how to spend money. I agree. But I also know the funds are desperately needed.

Let's walk away from the numbers here, for a second, and talk about what is needed in the New York City schools. As I've already mentioned, overcrowding is a pressing issue. Overcrowding affects the ability of our teachers and school administrators to manage their populations, provide services to students, and to give much needed individual attention that each child deserves. In my son's school the PTA is fighting to solve some serious staffing issues. For example, kids are not getting to play outside every day. Why? Because in the population of students there are children with asthma who would suffer from the weather conditions on any particular day. There are not enough teachers/ staff required to allow other students out to get exercise and fresh air. So they stay in. There are times in the instructional day when the children have watched movies. The answer we have been given is that there aren't enough resources/ teachers to facilitate an activity on some days. We do not have a gymnasium or a library on site. Luckily, we are next door to a branch of the public library and have access to a rented gym facility but we are at the mercy of their availability. We do not have an art teacher. There is only one set of bathrooms to accommodate the student population and those bathrooms are closed for cleaning for an hour in the afternoon which leaves one toilet in the nurse's office to service over 370 children. Funds have been set aside for a few years running to provide a new set of bathrooms, however we have been having trouble actually getting our hands on it. Construction has been put off indefinitely. There are no organized sports, no band, and no orchestra. We do have a mighty fine chess team, but nothing to encourage investment in team work. We lack space and we lack funds.

As new multi-unit apartment buildings spring up around 4th Avenue and other places in the neighborhood we expect families to move into them. These are families who will be needed services from an already stressed system. The problem is pretty simple; if you put 10 rats in a box made for 5 you will have problems. We need a bigger box.

We also need to start looking at education in a very different way. I am afraid that a combination of federal standards and under funding will force the system to start narrowing the curriculum. You may have read articles in the New York Times pointing out this issue. Can you imagine how exciting your education would have been if you had spent 12- 13 years of your life studying only reading and math? Facts, vocabulary and equations are not the only things that are important in a child's education. Skills, confidence, opportunity and support are the keys to success. How do you test those things? How do you quantify them? Why would you purposely tie the hands of those who want to provide those things? Getting things done in this city are remarkably difficult and I think it is a damn shame.

I'm watching. Other parents are watching. I know you are all concerned about what new schools mean for area property taxes and jobs. Those are valid concerns. However, I do find it disturbing that we get concerned about these things when it comes to building schools and providing services to the community, but we do not have a frank and honest discussion about how perks for major corporations and the wealthy affect the same concerns. I urge you to fight for the future workforce and to bank on a renewable resource.

Thank you for your time and consideration.