To the Editor:

Albany lawmakers are working on proposals designed to provide income tax credits to individuals for donations made to education scholarship funds.  The Education Investment Tax Credit, also known as the Parental Choice in Education Act, is a small step in the right direction but still, there is heavy union opposition.

Among those speaking against the proposals during a March 9 radio broadcast was Jasmine Gripper, described as a Statewide “Education” Advocate for the Alliance for Quality Education, which is a completely misleading moniker as she and it only advocate for unionized public schools, as opposed to the “education” in their title which is supposed to encompass all pedagogical institutions.

Ms. Gripper started her rant by claiming that: “…our public schools are being starved for resources…” and “…it is absurd for the state to be giving away money to private and parochial schools.”  But reality begs to differ.

First off, they aren’t “our” public schools. They are the government’s schools and they are fat with all the revenue the local property taxpayers have been able to muster and then some. It’s only non-union, non-government schools that have been starved for that funding.

What is truly absurd is that the government’s compulsory and undemocratic unionized schools have received their vast amounts of revenue by way of an equally undemocratic school district budget voting process that enables the wealthiest property taxpayers to vote away the last dime of income from the poorest residents of their school district.

Secondly, it’s not the state that is “giving away money” that was destined for public school coffers. It’s the individual taxpayers giving away their own money and the tax credit that the donors receive is applied toward their state income tax payment which goes into the general fund and will have no impact on public school funding. The donor’s school property tax will be unaffected.

David Crawmer

North Greenbush