Cuomo strangles Black student education

When Andrew Cuomo took office as New York's governor, one of his first actions was sold as a major win for homeowners: a property tax cap under the guise of curbing runaway local property taxes. But behind that policy was a decision that would effectively strangle school funding, devastating public schools, especially in low-income, immigrant, and Black and Brown communities.

- By MARINE MARCOU-O’MALLEY

The cap severely limited the funding available for education and, by extension, restricted the resources local schools could allocate to their students. Rather than offering real relief, Cuomo’s actions turned into a decade-long squeeze on public education in New York State.

At the same time, Cuomo made deep cuts to education, slashing nearly $3 billion in his first two years in office. Meanwhile, public schools in New York were confronting the challenges of meeting the needs of an increasingly diverse student population, including an increase in English language learners and students living in poverty. Instead of investing in these schools, Cuomo’s cuts fell hardest on the communities that had already been historically underfunded and neglected by the state’s education system. Black, Brown, low-income, and immigrant children saw their opportunities for a quality education diminished because Cuomo’s priority was balancing the state’s budget on the backs of our children, while refusing to tax the ultra-wealthy.