Several area school districts will be holding a joint protest in downtown Buffalo Friday morning calling for equity in school aid and an end to the Gap Elimination Adjustment. A similar rally will be held Friday night for East Aurora Schools. WBFO'S Focus on Education reporter Eileen Buckley says teachers, administrators, superintendents and parents are coming down hard on the Governor's education reforms.
"But the fervor is building," said Janise Green of East Aurora. Green is a parent with children attending Parkdale Elementary and East Aurora Middle.
Green says Cuomo's reforms and funding elimination would remove enrichment programs and focus only on the testing. Budget constraints have forced the district make cuts in music and arts.
"With this new budget for this year, they're not offering music in 4th grade. The kids not being able to be in those programs," said Green. "Their classes have gone."
"All of these districts around the state are being funded at levels that are below where they were in 2008-2009," said State Senator Marc Panepinto of Buffalo.
He's leading a rally at the Mahoney State Office building with leaders from Orchard Park, Hamburg, Ken-Ton, and the Lake Shore School Districts calling for a critical budget push for public education.
"The Governor's proposed reforms on test mandates and evaluations for teachers -- it's kind of like apples and oranges," stated Panepinto .
Panepinto tells WBFO News he does not support the Governor's education proposals.
Interim Buffalo Schools Superintendent Don Ogilvie calls Cuomo's reforms a 'rigid' and 'harsh' approach.
"You don't nurture and develop by threats, and I think, while perhaps not intending to do that, the message has been read by just about everybody in the education profession, that the Governor is taking a pretty hard line approach, and that's not necessarily going to bring about change," said Ogilvie.
Ogilvie said it appears they will all have to 'lobby' their way thorough problems to get more resources, but he noted they must access how they're doing business because it can't continue the way it has been down in the past.