ALBANY, N.Y. Jan. 15, 2015 - New York State United Teachers today launched a nearly $1 million ad campaign urging Gov. Andrew Cuomo to move beyond politics and ensure the state adequately and equitably funds its public schools.
The 30-second, documentary-style television ad features a narrator reading from a Jan. 5 New York Times editorial headlined, "The central crisis in New York education."
"Governor Cuomo's forthcoming State of the State address is expected to focus on what can be done to improve public education," the narrator reads as quotes from the editorial appear on the screen. "If he is serious about the issue, he'll have to move beyond peripheral concerns and political score-settling... and go to the heart of the matter."
"...that the state had not met its constitutional responsibility to ensure adequate school funding..."
As the screen cuts to a shot of the governor, and then to students raising their hands in a classroom, the narrator implores: "It's time to move beyond politics, Governor Cuomo. Support our future. Fairly fund our schools."
The television ad will run in the Albany and New York City metro areas for six days leading up to the governor's combined State of the State and budget presentations on Jan. 21. The ad begins just days after a new report demonstrated that educational inequality in school funding has grown to record levels, even as New York state has failed to honor its funding commitment in the Campaign for Fiscal Equity case. New York state owes school districts nearly $6 billion as part of a court settlement in which it acknowledged it had shortchanged schools and deprived students of their constitutional right to a sound, basic education.
Additionally, this print ad will appear in the Legislative Gazette and City & State Jan. 20, and in the Times Union Jan. 21.
New York State United Teachers is a statewide union with more than 600,000 members in education, human services and health care. NYSUT is affiliated with the American Federation of Teachers, the National Education Association and the AFL-CIO.
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