Former New York City Mayor, Ed Koch

Ed Koch has decided that enough is enough when it comes to the dysfunctional NYS government.  At 85 years young (which just goes to show you that 85 is the new 65) he is launching an anti-incombent initiative in Albany, the New York Times reported yesterday.

“I finally said to myself, somebody’s got to do something,” Mr. Koch recalled. “And if no one else does anything, notwithstanding the fact I’m 85 years old, I’m going to throw myself into it.”

So Mr. Koch is assembling a coalition of powerful civic groups that, starting next week, will plot a purge of the State Legislature by taking aim at incumbents judged to be impediments to change.

“I don’t believe the good ones are good enough,” Mr. Koch said, referring to state lawmakers, “and the bad ones are evil.”

The corruption and waste in Albany’s government is rampant.  Certainly, Sheldon Silver is a force with which to be reckoned.  I credit Koch for having the fortitude to take on this Herculean task.  His timing is right, but he will need, in addition to the groups he is inviting, to engage the netroots of New York State for a powerful, cohesive movement working to establish the change that is so desperately needed.

No matter the challenges, Mr. Koch believes there has never been a more opportune time for such an ambitious endeavor. “There will never be for another 100 years the same kind of environment that we have today that would help us succeed — that is, the disgust people have toward Albany,” he said.

Maybe there still are some heros out there.  He was right about Paterson.  I hope he’s right about this.

For years, when arguing politics to my less engaged friends and acquaintances, I have consistently heard the argument, “They’re all the same.  There’s no difference between the Democrats and the Republicans.  They’re all a bunch of crooks.”

Being the “pie in the sky” optimist that I am, I would talk up the values of the Democrats truly believing that this was the party of the people.  Then came Barack Obama and the Health Care Reform debate, the Climate Change debate, the War in the Middle East debate, the Financial debate and the Civil Liberties debate.

Chris Hedges wrote yesterday:

Obama lies as cravenly, if not as crudely, as George W. Bush. He promised us that the transfer of $12.8 trillion in taxpayer money to Wall Street would open up credit and lending to the average consumer. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC), however, admitted last week that banks have reduced lending at the sharpest pace since 1942. As a senator, Obama promised he would filibuster amendments to the FISA Reform Act that retroactively made legal the wiretapping and monitoring of millions of American citizens without warrant; instead he supported passage of the loathsome legislation. He told us he would withdraw American troops from Iraq, close the detention facility at Guantánamo, end torture, restore civil liberties such as habeas corpus and create new jobs. None of this has happened.

He is shoving a health care bill down our throats that would give hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars to the private health insurance industry in the form of subsidies, and force millions of uninsured Americans to buy insurers’ defective products. These policies would come with ever-rising co-pays, deductibles and premiums and see most of the seriously ill left bankrupt and unable to afford medical care. Obama did nothing to halt the collapse of the Copenhagen climate conference, after promising meaningful environmental reform, and has left us at the mercy of corporations such as ExxonMobil. He empowers Israel’s brutal apartheid state. He has expanded the war in Afghanistan and Pakistan, where hundreds of civilians, including entire families, have been slaughtered by sophisticated weapons systems such as the Hellfire missile, which sucks the air out of victims’ lungs. And he is delivering war and death to Yemen, Somalia and perhaps Iran.

Time after time after time I have applied “hope” to my expectation of presidential, senate or house leadership.  It’s incredible the number of times that my heart has been broken since this Democratic majority has come into power. (I wear my heart on my sleeve, by the way.  Due to the number of breaks, it is no longer identifiable as such.  Looks more like particulate matter, the result of an especially productive sneeze which I forgot to wipe off)

So, the Democratic Party has become unrecognizable to us.  Where do we go from here?  Hedges suggests a different party altogether-

“Here in the United States, at the beginning of the twentieth century, before there was a Soviet Union to spoil it, you see, socialism had a good name,” the late historian and activist Howard Zinn said in a lecture a year ago at Binghamton University. “Millions of people in the United States read socialist newspapers. They elected socialist members of Congress and socialist members of state legislatures. You know, there were like fourteen socialist chapters in Oklahoma. Really. I mean, you know, socialism—who stood for socialism? Eugene Debs, Helen Keller, Emma Goldman, Clarence Darrow, Jack London, Upton Sinclair. Yeah, socialism had a good name. It needs to be restored.”

[snip]

The hypocrisy and ineptitude of the Democrats become, in the eyes of
the wider public, the hypocrisy and ineptitude of the liberal class. We
can continue to tie our own hands and bind our own feet or we can break
free, endure the inevitable opprobrium, and fight back. This means
refusing to support the Democrats. It means undertaking the laborious
work of building a viable socialist movement. It is the only
alternative left to save our embattled open society. We can begin by
sending a message to the Green Party, McKinney and Nader. Let them know
they are no longer alone.

How about that Green Party?

The 10 Key Values of the Green Party

* Grassroots Democracy
* Social and Economic Justice
* Ecological Wisdom
* Nonviolence
* Decentralization
* Community-Based Economics
* Feminism
* Respect for Diversity
* Personal and Global Responsibility
* Future Focus and Sustainability

That’s sounding more like it. You coming, Howard?

We have been writing about the Genesee Valley Regional Market Authority for the past week.  Not really understanding the whole story, I took the opportunity today to speak with Bill Mulligan Jr, the current Market administrator to actually validate the information garnered from other sources.  Here’s what I learned:

• There are 120 acres within the Regional Market and 80 are tied up into 20-30year land leases.
• The properties with land leases pay 1.3 million/year in property taxes.
• Taxes are payed on the buildings, the land is tax exempt.
• There are 1,600 FT and 500 PT people employed by the businesses within the Market.
• The GVRMA is the only New York State Authority who operates with a surplus.
• Senator Jim Alesi is sponsoring legislation which “helps the state while leaving the Market intact”.

Jim Lawrence wrote this editorial in Sunday’s D&C which somewhat mirrors my take on the Regional Market.

A far more reasonable corrective action should involve members of the Rochester region’s Albany delegation finding a compromise that’s fair to all involved.Remember, 80 acres of the authority’s land is locked down under lease for the next 20 to 30 years. Another 30 acres comprise private roads and parking lots that could become a costly maintenance burden if the state assumed ownership as proposed.

Too, there is no evidence of unscrupulous activity by Mulligan and the authority’s four employees, including his mother. (A comparable authority in Baltimore has 10 employees.)

Let me also point out that the Baltimore authority continually operates at a loss.

My question remains, why take an authority which is an asset and dissolve it while we continue to loose money through the authorities operating with a deficit?

The phrase, “Cutting off your nose to spite your face” comes to mind.

The word “Stupid” comes to mind too.

Can’t we find a compromise, as Jim Lawrence suggests, which allows the Market Authority to remain intact at the same time that we remove the tax breaks which seem to be putting everybody’s panties in a knot?

I’m just sayin…

Last week we visited the issue of Chesapeake’s proposal to create a waste water well near Keuka Lake.  Hydrofracking in the Marcellus Shale has become a hot-button issue in the Southern Tier for those on both sides.  Eric Massa has come down on the side of conservation to preserve our precious fresh water as climate change makes this, more and more, a scarce resource.  From Eric’s press release, yesterday:

PULTENEY, N.Y. - Today, Rep. Eric Massa applauded the recent news that Chesapeake Energy has removed their application to put a hydrofracking waste water dump next to Keuka Lake in the town of Pulteney. This victory came after a full week of intense grassroots opposition to this proposal. In letters to the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, and the US Environmental Protection Agency, Chesapeake formalized their decision to remove their application following Rep. Massa’s formal request for them to do so in a letter dated January 19th. While this request may have had some impact on Chesapeake’s decision to pull their permit application, Rep. Massa today gave full credit to the families of Keuka Lake who built a grassroots movement to lead the way and deliver this victory.

I’m sure we haven’t heard the last from Chesapeake, but for the time being we can celebrate this victory.  Our congressman has our back.  We have his.  Together we will navigate through this impending shoot-out, as I’m sure it will become.   It’s good to have Eric on our side.

As the curtain opens on the Second Act, the stage is unusually quiet (cue: sound effect crickets).  Our former heroine, Maggie Brooks, is no longer a part of this scene.  Having her advances denied by leading man, Robert Duffy and supporting cast of the city of Rochester, she has exited stage right from the first Act, not to return.

RenSquare did not go down as the good lady had intended.  The unfunded theatre project was never popular with voters as people are sick of the  “money holes” like Frontier Field which continue to be paid for by the tax-payers without any clear view of when revenue will outpace expenditures.   So, the former Diva has sour grapes on the menu for today. Stlo7 wrote about this on Friday. Yesterday, channel 13 News reported this:

Rochester, N.Y. - Monroe County Executive Maggie Brooks says she’s staying out of the decision on where to build a new performing arts center.

Developers pitched a $70 million theater at Midtown Plaza on Friday.

Brooks said the plan looks a lot like the proposed theater she supported but the city criticized, at Renaissance Square.

“I look at the plan and I see it’s very similar to what we had at Main and Clinton. So I think at some point the community will want to see… what is different about what was on the table before and what’s on the table now.”

Although acknowledging a need for improved theatre conditions for the RBTL, and appreciating the importance of the arts,  in these tough economic times every penny spent has to be watched.  Our county executive needs to understand that it is not the theatre to which people object.  It is  the way RenSquare was crammed down their throats without a clear vision of it’s benefit vs risk.  Who was paying for it?

Our Prima Donna no longer likes the plot.  You will find her in her dressing room, packing up her things.

Rachel Barnhart over at Wham13 wrote about the newly unveiled Midtown RBTL theater proposal.   The essence of her report is that it will cost about $70 million dollars and no one know how it will be funded.

But this was interesting (my emphasis)

Although the city has repeatedly said the county’s support for a Midtown theater is essential, County Executive Maggie Brooks said she is staying out of the process. She also questioned how this theater proposal is different from the one she supported across the street at Renaissance Square.

Maggie is staying out and can’t see the difference between this proposal and RenSquare.

Well let’s start with this  - The proposed Midtown theater is cheaper that the RenSquare theater ($70M vs $83M) - that is a start.

Ms Brooks had blinders on then and apparently hasn’t yet taken them off.

What do you do when you set up a State Authority, give it rules and regulations, and then the authority expands into other areas and is “good” at that? That seems to be what is happening to the Genesee Valley Regional Market Authority.  There is a proposal on the table to abolish the Authority and have the state recoup the surplus it has.  From the D&C…

The Genesee Valley Regional Market Authority was established by statute in 1951 and opened the market in 1956. The board consists of 15 members representing nine counties, from Monroe to Steuben to Wyoming, and is tasked with operating and maintaining “adequate regional market facilities … for the buying and selling of agricultural products and to conduct such other business activities as reasonably are incidental to the … efficient, profitable and successful operation of such regional market facilities.”

Seven years into what records suggest was a failing operation, the law was amended to allow the authority to lease property for “agricultural, business, commercial or industrial uses.” That amendment, the authority says, enabled the market to thrive and spearhead commercial development along Jefferson Road.

Today, wholesale food distributors are prominent at the market but make up a small number of its more than 160 tenants, whose diversified services make the market virtually indistinguishable from retail malls. Tenants include Chase Bank, Taco Bell, Holiday Inn, Tim Hortons, Office Depot, Verizon Wireless, a church, a nail salon and a muffler shop.

What benefits do these companies get for locating at the Regional Market?  Anyone know?  Does a Holiday Inn or Office Depot or Taco Bell or Tim Hortons need these benefits?

[Agriculture Commissioner Patrick] Hooker said the extent to which the authority is functioning as a real estate holding company has put it in violation of the spirit of its mission.

I’ve got to agree.  Now Gov Paterson released a proposal that would abolish the authority:

The proposal, released as part of a list of executive budget amendments that seeks to close a $750 million deficit, would have another authority, the Empire State Development Corp., assume control of the market’s $26 million in assets and tap its $12 million surplus. According to the state Budget Division, the surplus would provide $7 million in budget relief, $3 million in grants to farmers, and $2 million for state Department of Agriculture operations.

How much of this surplus is a result of the Authority and the power it has to run things?   I’ve got to believe that there are tax, finance, or other advantages that the authority can bestow on tenants and which the tenants benefit from.    What happens if the Authority is abolished or, more accurately,  morphed into something else that it actually does?

Is there a problem here?  It is a State created Authority - I’m thinking the State can abolish it.  I’m thinking this falls under government consolidation.  A good thing.

Reich has a way of explaining things so even a Tea-bagger could understand it.  Tuesday he wrote about Anthem, his insurance carrier, who feels (apparently this corporation feels?) that it needs to raise it’s rates by 39%.  It used to be Blue Cross, now it has merged to become Anthem Blue Cross. The supposed reason for the increase being that the pool of insured has decreased while it’s needs have increased.  Hmmm, interesting.

This argument sounds logical until you look more closely. First, Anthem and its corporate parent, WellPoint, are enormously profitable. WellPoint’s profits rose to $2.7 billion last quarter. Even if you subtract one-time-only financial maneuvers, WellPoint is still fat and happy, which makes Anthem fat and happy. Everyone is fat and happy except Anthem’s policy holders, who are being skewered.

Anthem’s argument is even more questionable when you consider that Anthem has been among the most aggressive opponents of the health-care bills passed by the House and Senate. If Anthem were sincere about why it’s raising its rates, it would be embracing the legislation. The Senate and House bills would add tens of millions of Americans to insurance pools – thereby spreading the costs over more people and avoiding the very problem Anthem says is now forcing it to raise its rates so much.

Ah, big insurance corporations, can’t live with ‘em, can’t live without ‘em.

So, maybe it’s time for that Kumbaya, group hug moment with the Republicans to move health care reform forward, because, regardless of our political affiliation, what is best for the people is our goal, *right?  No one is heartless enough to put politics over people, *right?

Obama says he’s open to any new ideas from Republicans for how to control health care costs and expand coverage. The problem is Republicans don’t want to play this game. They don’t care about controlling costs or expanding coverage. They care only about taking back the House and/or the Senate next November. And they believe a means toward attaining this goal is to prevent Obama from achieving a victory on health care. The sooner the President accepts that undeniable fact — and gets the House to pass the Senate’s bill, and then uses the reconciliation process (that requires only 51 votes in the Senate) to deal with any remaining irreconcilable differences between the House and Senate — the better.

*Wrong

Just following up on the  award of $151 million dollars to develop high speed rail in New York State.  Check out this article via Huffpo on how Florida got the lion’s share of a high speed rail award. Basically Florida politicians worked together - whether is was Democrat  Rep Grayson or Republican Governor Crist or various parties in the State legislature.  They kept their eye on the prize getting development monies.

How did NY end up with $151 million?  Last August and again in October,  the New York Department of transportation submitted applications for a variety of high speed rail projects and…

Asked about the quality of New York’s application, LaHood barely veiled his displeasure.

“I think the money we gave New York reflects what we thought about their application,” he said. New York won just $151 million. “Look, I’ve talked to the governor; I’ve talked to Senator [Charles E.] Schumer about this; I’ve talked to Congresswoman [Louis] Slaughter about this. They know. Any region that had their act together got money.”

An aide to the New York delegation said that lobbying from federal representatives was the only reason that the state — whose legislature makes the U.S. Senate look like a model of efficiency — got even the paltry sum it did. Slaughter looked to put a positive spin on it. “We all worked very closely on this application and I was pleased with the fact that Secretary LaHood gave the state more money than 42 other states received. We won’t let up until we make high speed rail a reality for New York,” she said in a statement to HuffPost.

What did Congressman Maffei say?

“New York’s application was lacking in a big way.”  Rep. Dan Maffei, D-DeWitt, acknowledged that state officials have done a generally poor job submitting federal grant applications.

“That has hurt us, not just in transportation but in other areas as well,” he said.

Look, I’ve quickly looked at the applications and am not sure what qualifies as a “quality” application however questions I have are how closely did the Federal Reps and State Reps work together?  I’m guessing that the likes of Schumer and Slaughter would know what would be required.  So do New York State reach out or accept help?

Is there any doubt that our State governmental dysfunction is affecting us at the federal level?  Didn’t New York also miss some filing with the Department of Education?

I was able to catch the president’s SOTU address in bits and pieces, streaming it live while I was at work.  Fortunately, I was watching when the president invited anyone with a better health care plan to let him know.

As temperatures cool, I want everyone to take another look at the plan we’ve proposed. There’s a reason why many doctors, nurses and health care experts who know our system best consider this approach a vast improvement over the status quo.

But if anyone from either party has a better approach that will bring down premiums, bring down the deficit, cover the uninsured, strengthen Medicare for seniors, and stop insurance company abuses, let me know.

Let me know. Let me know.

I’m eager to see it.

I was watching, and listening and I thought to myself, “Universal Single Payer, HR676.”  Fortunately, the PNHP was listening too and John Nichols, from The Nation has written about it here.

Dr. Margaret Flowers, a pediatrician and congressional fellow for PNHP, went to the White House today to deliver an open letter to the president calling on him to meet with her and other Medicare-for-All advocates.

Here’s the letter:

January 28, 2010President Barack Obama 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Washington, D.C. 20500

Dear President Obama,

I was overjoyed to hear you say in your State of the Union address last night:

“But if anyone from either party has a better approach that will bring down premiums, bring down the deficit, cover the uninsured, strengthen Medicare for seniors, and stop insurance company abuses, let me know.”

My colleagues, fellow health advocates and I have been trying to meet with you for over a year now because we have an approach which will meet all of your goals and more.

More is explained in this letter to the president, and I hope you will link to it and read the article in it’s entirety.

We all want health care reform, Mr President, but we want real reform that works.

Here’s the solution.

This is something that has been bothering me for a while.  Medicaid Fraud.  Yeah, its there and been there a while.   Check out this 1982 article.

In fact, show me a system with people involved that doesn’t involve some sort of fraud.  Wall Street?  Madoff, Insider trading,  Income tax?  Remember the days when you could declare your charitable contributions w/o a receipt?  Oh, and is that donated coffee pot really worth $20.  The list goes on.  I understand that it is out there and fraud should be stopped and while we are stopping fraud, we should be looking at “waste” as well.  Let’s just make sure we define it correctly. But how big a problem is it and how much money are we talking about.

So this article got me thinking

The company that assigns transportation for Medicaid recipients in Monroe County has agreed to return about $80,000 that state investigators said it obtained through questionable billing practices that violated regulations and created a conflict of interest.

Medical Answering Services was also required to enter into a three-year corporate integrity agreement with the state Office of the Medicaid Inspector General that imposes a compliance regimen to prevent fraud and favoritism.

how did it get discovered?  An Audit.

State auditors revealed last month that the program has squandered $92 million in overpayments, billing errors and waste in recent years.

Look,  $92 million is a lot of money but a little context is important - that is out of $16 billion dollars in state funds directed towards Medicaid.  If I read this chart correctly, NYS  spends $45 billion total and $15 billion is State funds.

In 2008, NYS recovered $551 million. How about we hire more auditors and audit more?  Hopefully, not like like the “pick a name out of the phone book”  that nabbed the Sweden Town Supervisor for tax fraud but something more formal.  Oh what looks like we already did that.

[Medicaid Inspector General James G.] Sheehan attributed the success to the state’s financial support for investigations. His staff rose from about 400 to 575 from 2007 to 2008. His budget rose by $4.8 million to just over $100 million.

Not bad.  Still $551 million of $16 billion is 3%.   Point being Medicaid itself isn’t “bad” and the level of “fraud” doesnt’ seem out of step with the overall budget.  We should audit to ensure compliance but not expect to audit our way to budget surplus.

In these economic down times, everyone is examining ways to become more economically efficient.  The Village of Brockport is in dire straits.  Their reserves are gone and in order to stay afloat, they would need to severely cut services or raise taxes by 18% every year for 5 years.  But a taxpayers group has a different alternative in mind:

A taxpayers group says that is unacceptable and the only alternative is to dissolve the village of Brockport.

Dan Kuhn moved to Brockport in 2004 and has seen his taxes go up, all while the village has run out of money.

“It’s clear that the village government has not been a good steward of our tax dollars,” Kuhn said.

Kuhn is outraged that his taxes may go up again. “So in essence, our taxes would double,” he said.

Last month, Brockport’s new mayor said the village reserves were gone and there were few alternatives.

“The bottom line is we’re going to need to look at cutting services, and/or we’re going to be raising taxes, and that’s the bottom line,” said Brockport Mayor Connie Castaneda.

Kuhn said cutting services won’t work and it is time to dissolve the village and join the town of Sweden, which is an idea he said was not well-received by the board.

I guess we’ll have to wait and see how this rolls out, but it seems that consolidation is an idea on a lot of people’s minds these days.

Mayor Johnson was a man ahead of his time.

Wall

Writing

See?

Powell vs Elliott.  I saw this in City News - anyone know beyond the headline what is happening?  Seems Rochester School Board member Cynthia Elliott leaked a draft memo to the Democrat and Chronicle.

On the same day that Rochester School Board member Cynthia Elliott was being sworn in for her second term, she was served legal notice that her colleague Willa Powell had filed a petition with State Education Commissioner David Steiner to have Elliott removed from office.

The Board received written confirmation from the comptroller’s office that the copy of the draft audit leaked to the Democrat and Chronicle belonged to Elliott, says Board President Malik Evans.

The report was, shall we say, critical of the school board.

The report covers the July 2007 through October 2008 time period. Among the most damning criticisms:

• Former Superintendent Manny Rivera provided top-level administrators with more than $164,000 in bonuses and salary increases without ample documentation;
• The district’s claims auditor failed to audit $9 million in requests for payments;
• The district had a shoddy process for the handling of 61 contracts totaling $2,673,082; most were awarded without requests for bids;
• Contracts totaling $900,000 were awarded to a vendor who had a personal relationship with the chief financial officer;
• Contracts worth more than $25,000 were implemented without the Board’s approval, a violation of policy.

The issue here is that the findings were leaked and not the school boards response (remember the report that was critical of Fairport schools?  There at least was a district response).   It is also odd that Powell is quoted as acting as a citizen as opposed to a board member.

Powell, who says she acted as a citizen rather than in her official capacity as a School Board member, filed the petition because Elliott leaked a draft of the New York State comptroller’s recent audit of the city school district to the Democrat and Chronicle.

Seems a citizen would want full disclosure sooner rather than later.

Still, friction on the school board can’t be helping the Rochester City School district.

Earlier this week Stlo7 wrote about the mayor’s vow to become one with the city school district.   This has the district in a tizz.

Really, can it be that bad?  Let’s look at what the city school district has had in place for the last year.  News stories about the school lunch program, accusations of racism and a general misuse of funds by the district officials have left a bitter taste in the mouth of city school district residents within the last year.

I have three children in the city school district.  I do not allow them to buy lunch and I am a dominant presence in their day to day education.  The teachers that I have had the pleasure of dealing with are caring, intelligent and devoted.  However, when I have had to deal with things at the district level, I found it to be difficult and oppressive.   So many inconsistencies (failure to comply with IEP’s, for example)  and so many children falling through the cracks.  Fortunately, my children are in grammar school.  It’s in the high schools where things get sticky.  Would this be due to problems being swept under the rug in grammar school?  Maybe that is where the cycle begins.

I know first hand that the school district does not support special services needed for autistic children.  In some high schools here in the city, kids are coming in and out of the back windows because they are not monitored by guards. Kids are having sex in the stair wells and it is a struggle just trying to learn.  In one school, if you are late to class, they just lock down the halls and everyone who is not in a classroom goes into a big holding area and misses class altogether.  I must admit, I don’t know if I would have finished high school under these circumstances.

I find it amazing that the school budget is 73% of the city’s property tax and the district is spending $22,000 per student, yet 50% barely graduate.  Where is the money going?  I think the Mayor should have a shot at it.  As parents, we all want what’s best for our kids.  Right now, moving out of the city school district is not an option for me, so I will be supportive of change.  Maybe Brizard should finally be held accountable for the way the schools have been run in the last couple of years.  Or better yet, maybe they should all have lunch in one of the school cafeterias and really get a taste of what it’s like.

OK - where are you at? I’ve previously asked

The question is:  What does Mayoral Control  do to alleviate the systematic problems that result in “poor” city schools?

Seems this has to be a two front approach -

Government Consolidation AND breaking the cycle of poverty.

Personally, if this is simply a money play or an attempt at bringing a bigger stick to the problem - I believe it is doomed to fail.  If, however this is one prong of a two pronged approach well, it could work.

Seems City News has similar thoughts last week.

The district’s certainly not perfect. And the state comptroller’s recent findings show that the School Board hasn’t done a good job overseeing the superintendent. But the critics severely underestimate the district’s challenges. The vast majority of Rochester’s students are poor. Many are from single-parent families. Many have parents who are poorly educated themselves. Many enter school way behind in verbal skills. Many have witnessed violence. Many have experienced violence. Many have serious mental or physical health problems. The school district (as I’ve said so many times that even I’m bored) can’t overcome those things by itself.

I also liked this perspective.

I do think, though, that we could gain something important with mayoral control. For years, city officials have been at odds with the school district, suspicious of its management, unhappy with student achievement. And the district has often been hostile and uncooperative. Energy that could have gone toward helping children gets spent lobbing accusations between City Hall and the School District.

To bring about real change will require support from the entire community. It will require that the entire community have faith in the school district. That will require a united stand by the district and City Hall. And the logical person to lead is the mayor. In reality, the School Board has a limited constituency: students and their families. The mayor represents every resident in the city. And he and City Council, not the School Board, are responsible for raising the taxes that help pay for the schools.

So, again, if this is part of a two pronged effort to break the poverty cycle and stream line government - great.  If this is a money grab to artificially balance the city’s books or pay for all that zero tolerance stuff - well - doomed to fail.

Reminds me of the cynical work cartoon that says - “the beatings will continue until morale improves.”

School success is key to Rochester’s success.