10 JANUARY 20 - JANUARY 26, 2017 BROOKLYN MEDIA GROUP EDITORIAL MONEY MATTERS With the change of administrations on Friday, January 20, educators are looking closely at changes that could be made by the incoming president and his choice for Secretary of Education. What some have learned frightens them, and with good reason – the focus on vouchers supported by President Trump, they say, could end up draining federal funding from local public schools. Indeed, the UFT did an analysis of the distribution of Title I funds (that go to schools where a certain percentage of population is eligible for free or reduced-cost lunch) and determined that, should that funding go instead to vouchers, which could be used for private, parochial or charter schools, city schools would be negatively impacted to the tune of as much as $500 million. Among the hardest hit would be several schools in southwest Brooklyn, beginning with Fort Hamilton High School, which comes in at the top of the list with over $2.5 million in Title I money at risk should Trump redirect $20 billion in federal funding from public schools to vouchers rather than potentially creating an independent funding stream that could be used for vouchers. Two other area high schools would also be hard hit – New Utrecht High School would be the second most impacted public school citywide, standing to lose $2.24 million, with Franklin Delano Roosevelt High School third on the list, with a potential loss of $2.12 million in Title I funding. And, lest you think that it’s just high schools that would be hurt, think again. Also high up on the list of schools are two Sunset Park elementary schools, P.S. 94 and P.S. 169, which come in second and third on the roster of elementary A LOOK BACK In this photo from the archives of the Brooklyn Public Library, Fort Hamilton High School – which currently serves 4,492 students -- is seen under construction in 1940. The school, which just celebrated its 75th anniversary, serves a diverse population in a variety of income brackets, with more than half of its students considered to be economically disadvantaged, resulting in the school receiving the highest amount of federal Title I money of any school in the city. However, the UFT is warning that a change in the way the federal government disperses education Photo: Brooklyn Public Library funding – if, for instance, Title I money were to be redirected to school vouchers under President Trump – could negatively impact the school, which currently receives more than $2.5 million under the Title I program, as well as several others in southwest Brooklyn. Compiled by Helen Klein GUEST OP-ED 14 BROOKLYN MEDIA GROUP • MARCH 6 - MARCH 12,editorial A LOOK BACK compiled by GO BACK TO THE DRAWING BOARD and intermediate schools citywide in terms of the amount of funding that’s in jeopardy. Adding insult to injury, two more southwest Brooklyn schools also made the list, with P.S. 105 coming in at number six and I.S. 220 (Pershing) coming in at number eight. Indeed, on the list of the top 10 most impacted schools in Brooklyn, nine are from the southwest portion of the borough (Districts 15, 20 and 21). Clearly, our neighborhoods stand to lose big if federal funding for public schools is funneled into vouchers. But, area residents can join educators in sounding the alarm and letting our representatives know that draining Title I funds from local schools is completely unacceptable, for the future of the students, our borough, our city and our country. HOMEREPORTER AND SUNSET NEWS Change (Estab. 1953) to 2015 ▲ ▲ Gary Nilsen and Helen Klein (USPS 248.800) 9733 FOURTH AVE. • BROOKLYN, NY 11209 Co-Publisher ... Victoria Schneps-Yunis Co-Publisher ... Joshua A. Schneps Editor in Chief ... Helen Klein Telephone 718-238-6600 Fax 718-238-6630 E-mail [email protected] Periodical postage paid at Brooklyn, N.Y. Published weekly by Brooklyn Media Group, Inc. Single copies, 50 cents. $35 per year by mail, $40 outside Brooklyn. On June 8, 1962, the Bay Ridge Home Reporter (founded 1953) and the Brooklyn Sunset News, a continuation of the Bay Ridge News (founded 1943) were merged into the HOME REPORTER AND SUNSET NEWS. Postmaster: Send Address Changes To: Home Reporter and Sunset News 9733 Fourth Ave., Brooklyn, N.Y. 11209 Entire contents copyright 2014 by Home Reporter and Sunset News All letters sent to the HOME REPORTER AND SUNSET NEWS should be brief and are subject to condensing. Writers should include a full address and home and office telephone numbers, where available, as well as affiliation, indicating special interest. Anonymous letters are not printed. Name withheld on request. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR, AS WELL AS OP-ED PIECES IN NO WAY REFLECT THE PAPER’S POSITION. No such ad or any part thereof may be reproduced without prior permission of the HOME REPORTER AND SUNSET NEWS. The publishers will not be responsible for any error in advertising beyond the cost of the space occupied by the error. Errors must be reported to the HOME REPORTER AND SUNSET NEWS within five days of publication. Ad position cannot be guaranteed unless paid prior to publication. Brooklyn Media Group, Inc. assumes no liability for the content or reply to any ads. The advertiser assumes all liability for the content of and all replies. The advertiser agrees to hold the HOME REPORTER AND SUNSET NEWS and its employees harmless from all cost, expenses, liabilities, and damages resulting from or caused by the publication or recording placed by the advertiser or any reply to such advertisement. Photo by Gardiner Anderson And the award goes to… Bay Ridge, which has provided the backdrop for many movies and television shows over the years, from “Blue Bloods” and “Saturday Night Fever” to “Mad Men” and, in 2006, to “Then She Found Me,” starring Helen Hunt and Bette Midler, seen above in a September, 2006, Home Reporter photo taken on location on Shore Road at 77th Street. Midler performed at the most recent Oscars, singing “Wind Beneath My Wings” during the awards show’s In Memoriam segment. “Then She Found Me,” which also starred Matthew Broderick, was also shot inside a historic home on 88th Street. BY ASSEMBLYMEMBER WALTER MOSLEY Each day, thousands of people depend on SUNY Downstate Medical Center for emergency medical care and vital health care services. But this state-operated public hospital has been in danger of being closed or privatized for more than two years. Hundreds of jobs have been lost, and numerous health care services have been cut or curtailed due to the hospital’s ill-prepared “Sustainability Plan.” Now, there is language in the 2014-15 proposed state budget that would open the door to as many as five corporations to operate SUNY’s public hospitals. United University Professions, the union that represents nearly 3,000 employees at SUNY Downstate, has been fighting to keep SUNY Downstate a fully operational staterun facility. However, UUP isn’t fighting the battle alone. The SUNY Downstate Coalition of Faith, Labor and Community Leaders has become an important ally. The coalition has staged a number of rallies and protests over the past 18 months to save health care services and jobs at SUNY Downstate and keep it a public facility. The latest such effort is a 48-hour interfaith fast. It will begin Sunday, March 9, at 3 p.m., in front of Downstate’s 470 Clarkson Avenue entrance. Interfaith leaders and members of the community will participate to show their strong support for this beacon in Brooklyn and call attention to the threats it faces. You can take part in the fast or find out more about it by calling 718-270-1519, or sending an email to [email protected]. We strongly urge you to join our campaign. Take part in the fast, or come out and show your support. Together, we can deliver a strong message that SUNY Downstate must remain a full-service, state-operated public hospital. The threats facing SUNY Downstate are real. The SUNY Board of Trustees has openly discussed the possibility of closing SUNY Downstate. There is also language in the Executive Budget, which would allow corporations to control SUNY’s public hospitals; one corporation affiliate with an academic medical institution or teaching hospital. SUNY Downstate has Brooklyn’s teaching hospital. Privatizing or closing SUNY Downstate as a way the state to save dollars is shortsighted and unnecessary. We believe the answer to Brooklyn’s health care shortcomings lies in the “Brooklyn Hospitals Safety Net Plan,” a UUP-backed initiative to stabilize and deliver health care throughout Brooklyn. This plan would preserve SUNY Downstate and several financially unstable hospitals in Brooklyn, including Interfaith Medical Center, Brookdale, Island College Hospital and Kingsbrook Jewish Medical Center. You can see the proposal online http://www.brooklynhospitalplan.org. It calls for the creation of a network of satellite ambulatory care centers, and would be controlled by and with 14 other Brooklyn hospitals. Downstate would be the network’s hub, educating and supplying physicians and medical staff to the care centers and working with doctors at the other hospitals. It’s a simple, effective plan and, if given a chance, will work. New York has a responsibility to provide for the health care needs of its citizens. The Brooklyn Hospitals Safety Net Plan—our plan and the community’s plan—viable, workable option for long-term health care Brooklyn. That’s something that Brooklyn residents desperately need. Frederick E. Kowal is president of United University Professions, the union representing 35,000 faculty and professional staff at SUNY’s 29 state-operated campuses, including SUNY’s public teaching hospitals and health science centers in Brooklyn, Buffalo, Long Island and Syracuse. With the city deciding to move forward on most of the school co-locations approved late last year, as Mayor Bloomberg prepared to vacate City Hall, parents in southwest Brooklyn are not only disappointed but angry. While the Department of Education under Mayor de Blasio wisely opted to back out of a planned co-location of a new high school inside Gravesend’s John Dewey High School, the DOE decided to move ahead with two others: the co-location of a charter school inside Seth Low Intermediate School in Bensonhurst and another inside Joseph B. Cavallaro Intermediate School in Bath Beach. These – like others in the borough and the city – are both fiercely opposed by parents, educators, students and the local Community Education Councils, all of whom contend that the co-locations would steal necessary space from students already attending the schools, and those who will be going to them in the near future. While the city has said it only considers under-utilized schools for co-locations, area education advocates say that both Cavallaro and Seth Low are well utilized, and likely to become more crowded as students now in elementary school in both District 20 and District 21 move up to middle school. Indeed, District 20 is one of the most crowded school districts in the city, so much so that the city built a host of new schools for it in the past decade, with more being planned, meaning that public school students in both District 20 and District 21 are likely to feel the squeeze should they have to share space with students from a charter school. That strikes us as patently unfair. While some of the charter schools poised to open in September, 2014 may be worthy additions to the city’s educational offerings, their needs should not trump the needs of existing schools with existing students. And, indeed, when a charter school is put inside a public school, the process must involve the school communities at both educational institutions, and parents must also be involved. The city must go back to the drawing board and come up with alternative arrangements for the charter schools planned for Seth Low and Cavallaro as well as other schools where they are opposed.. The students who attend those schools deserve no less. guest op-ed Keep SUNY Downstate open and public BY FREDERICK E. KOWAL Entire contents copyright 2016 by Home Reporter and Sunset News NEW YEAR BRINGS NEW LAWS TO BENEFIT COMMUNITY Having rung in 2017, Brooklynites have a lot to celebrate. Every New Yorker deserves to make a livable wage, and we’re making progress on that front. Thousands of workers across the state are now bringing home more money because the minimum wage increased on December 31, and with more increases taking effect in coming years, we will continue to lift working families out of poverty. Veterans risk their lives to protect our country, and it’s important that we do everything we can to help them once they come home. The state budget I helped pass extended the Hire-a-Veteran tax credit through 2018 to help more members of the military find good jobs and build a bright future. In addition, I’m working to make the health and safety of all New Yorkers, including first responders, a top priority with the expansion of the “Move Over” law to require drivers to slow down and move over for volunteer firefighters and ambulance workers whose vehicles have flashing blue or green lights. It’s important for all of us to exercise caution, slow down and move over when we see these vehicles. I also helped permanently extend the Earned Income Tax Credit for noncustodial parents who are current on their child support payments and meet the income threshold for a single taxpayer without children. In addition, homeowners are now eligible for a reduction in their homeowner’s insurance premiums upon completing a natural disaster preparedness, home safety and loss prevention course. We also continued to make important progress in combating the devastating heroin epidemic, which has destroyed thousands of families across New York. I helped pass a law to reduce the stigma of medication-assisted treatment for those with a substance abuse disorder. This year’s state budget provided $26 million to strengthen prevention and treatment programs and safely dispose of pharmaceuticals. Moreover, individuals struggling with substance abuse disorders will no longer need prior approval from insurance companies to access inpatient drug treatment services. Insurers will also cover an emergency five-day supply of medication to help overcome their disease without prior approval, as well as medications to treat drug overdoses. It’s also important to be proactive when it comes to protecting our health, which is why New York expanded access to breast cancer screenings. Starting this year, insurance companies can no longer require New Yorkers to pay annual deductibles, co-payments and co-insurance payments for screening and diagnostic imaging for the detection of breast cancer. In addition, more hospitals and clinics are now required to offer extended hours to make it easier for women who work full time to get potentially lifesaving screenings. New York City employees also now have the right to four hours of paid leave per year for breast cancer screenings As we enter 2017, it is important now more than ever that New York lead by example and remain a progressive champion. From helping to create more and better jobs, to giving students an education that sets them up for future success, to keeping dangerous drugs off our streets and helping those struggling with dependency, I’ll always work to keep us moving in the right direction. Walter Mosley represents the 57th A.D.
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