AQE Agrees With Cuomo That Racial Disparities Exist In School Funding — But Disparities Are The Result Of His Budgets

ALBANY, N.Y. (June 5, 2018) — Today, as reported in a reporter’s tweet, Andrew Cuomo said that he wants to see if there is school inequity, predicting that whiter, wealthier schools get more funding. And he said he wants to know what to do about it. This is after eight years of consistently refusing to fund Foundation Aid and denying that he has any obligations to high need school districts as a result of the Campaign for Fiscal Equity. But for his entire eight years in office, parents from the Alliance for Quality Education, including Cynthia Nixon, have aggressively documented Cuomo’s inequitable school funding policies and advocated for high need schools.

“Governor Cuomo’s false claim that it is the public and the media who have failed to bring issues of educational inequities to light is insulting, and erases the unceasing efforts of Black and Brown parents and students who have been fighting for education justice for decades,” said Zakiyah Ansari, advocacy director, Alliance for Quality Education. “Andrew Cuomo is right about one thing, there is tremendous inequity in school funding and it favors students in wealthy white communities at the expense of Black, Brown and low-income students, but the fact is that this is the consequence of his policy. He has consistently refused to adequately fund our neediest schools and under his leadership the spending between rich and poor schools has grown to $10,000 per pupil, a 24 percent increase.”

“Today’s claim follows Governor Cuomo’s usual pattern of trying to pass the buck and deny his culpability, just like he has done with the MTA and the IDC, blaming the people he victimizes and misleading the public with alternative facts — all while attacking the media in Trumpian fashion.

“Throughout Cuomo’s eight years in office, AQE has brought thousands of Black and Brown parents and students from across New York State to Albany year after year to highlight the disparities in school funding between Black and Brown children and their white peers — and whether Cuomo admits it or not, year after year, those parents’ efforts have been reported by media statewide. It is Governor Cuomo who has chosen to ignore all these calls for educational equity from parents and students, choosing instead to push his policies that have worsened racial inequities in our schools.”