The goal of ParentAdvocates.org
is to put tax dollar expenditures and other monies used or spent by our federal, state and/or city governments before your eyes and in your hands.
Through our website, you can learn your rights as a taxpayer and parent as well as to which programs, monies and more you may be entitled...and why you may not be able to exercise these rights.
Mission Statement
is to put tax dollar expenditures and other monies used or spent by our federal, state and/or city governments before your eyes and in your hands.
Through our website, you can learn your rights as a taxpayer and parent as well as to which programs, monies and more you may be entitled...and why you may not be able to exercise these rights.
Mission Statement
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The E-Accountability Foundation announces the
'A for Accountability' Award
to those who are willing to whistleblow unjust, misleading, or false actions and claims of the politico-educational complex in order to bring about educational reform in favor of children of all races, intellectual ability and economic status. They ask questions that need to be asked, such as "where is the money?" and "Why does it have to be this way?" and they never give up. These people have withstood adversity and have held those who seem not to believe in honesty, integrity and compassion accountable for their actions. The winners of our "A" work to expose wrong-doing not for themselves, but for others - total strangers - for the "Greater Good"of the community and, by their actions, exemplify courage and self-less passion. They are parent advocates. We salute you.
Winners of the "A":
Johnnie Mae Allen
David Possner
Dee Alpert
Aaron Carr
Harris Lirtzman
Hipolito Colon
Larry Fisher
The Giraffe Project and Giraffe Heroes' Program
Jimmy Kilpatrick and George Scott
Zach Kopplin
Matthew LaClair
Wangari Maathai
Erich Martel
Steve Orel, in memoriam, Interversity, and The World of Opportunity
Marla Ruzicka, in Memoriam
Nancy Swan
Bob Witanek
Peyton Wolcott
[ More Details » ]
'A for Accountability' Award
to those who are willing to whistleblow unjust, misleading, or false actions and claims of the politico-educational complex in order to bring about educational reform in favor of children of all races, intellectual ability and economic status. They ask questions that need to be asked, such as "where is the money?" and "Why does it have to be this way?" and they never give up. These people have withstood adversity and have held those who seem not to believe in honesty, integrity and compassion accountable for their actions. The winners of our "A" work to expose wrong-doing not for themselves, but for others - total strangers - for the "Greater Good"of the community and, by their actions, exemplify courage and self-less passion. They are parent advocates. We salute you.
Winners of the "A":
Johnnie Mae Allen
David Possner
Dee Alpert
Aaron Carr
Harris Lirtzman
Hipolito Colon
Larry Fisher
The Giraffe Project and Giraffe Heroes' Program
Jimmy Kilpatrick and George Scott
Zach Kopplin
Matthew LaClair
Wangari Maathai
Erich Martel
Steve Orel, in memoriam, Interversity, and The World of Opportunity
Marla Ruzicka, in Memoriam
Nancy Swan
Bob Witanek
Peyton Wolcott
[ More Details » ]
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What Do You Think?
Public Education and Property Taxes
Fred Lane
Fred Lane
For Immediate release New York Tax Reform Organization Freehold NY 5/12/04 Public Education and Property Taxes Someone is either missing or conveniently ignoring the point in regard to the annually proposed (and passed) school budget increases in Greenville and across NY. Qualified teachers, upgraded schools and well-educated students (according to the latest NYSUT Channel 6 TV ad, four out of five go on to college) are a very good thing. But regardless of the accomplishments of the Department of Education in NY, we taxpayers can no longer afford the cost that it imposes upon us. There is nothing personal, selfish, irresponsible or un-American about not having the money to continue to fund the enormous and ever spiraling cost of government run education. What is personal is that we have no options!! We are quite simply coerced into attending public schools and extorted into funding them. The real point is that we taxpayers can no longer financially float the boat and prosper without working two jobs or leaving the state. It is even worse for retirees and those on fixed incomes that remain harnessed to an obsolete and unfair method of paying for "free" public education". Funding public education is at the center of the tax dilemma in New York. We can no longer financially withstand (without drastically compromising our families financial security) the continual annual school budget increases regardless of their merits. Yet year after year we go through the same processes of local conflict with the schools that end with increased property taxes and lasting resentments from across both sides of the table. Funding school budgets through increasing property taxes divides a community that would otherwise be good neighbors. It divides the parents with children in school from those of us that do not and it divides federal, state and local governments. In short it divides us all in one way or another. Worst of all, school budget funding in its current form perpetuates the self-evident fact that schools are political. Admittedly or not, the AFT, NEA and NYSUT are submerged in Albany politics through lobbying and even indirect special interest groups that are under the AFL/CIO umbrella with them. This alone undermines the representation of the individual taxpayer that is not in a union or special interest group. It is time for the voters/taxpayers across NY to just say "NO" to budget increases and let them figure it out without cutting the programs. You are no less an American, parent or person to do so. You are not selfish, you do not hate kids and you are not `irresponsible' as Dan DiNicola stated last year in his channel 6 News school budget report. You are hard working people that can no longer afford a product... regardless of its importance. I take offense to insinuations and subtle attempts at stigmatizing an oppressed population of taxpayers as cheapskates!! It is perfectly OK for us to just say "NO" to budget increases and to demand tax reform. There are solutions out there. Privatizing education and/or awarding tax credits for those self educating or sending their children to private schools are among a few. Finding new ways to tax individuals that slip through the property tax method is yet another. But by and far...we need to separate the school from the state in that it has so much power and influence on our representatives through unions and lobbying efforts. Historically, New Yorkers have always good heartedly tightened up on their home budgets to accommodate tax hikes. At a time when the residents of NY and the entire country is in great economic straights and with government waste, fraud and abuse running rampant...it is time for many government funded organizations and institutions that feed at the revenue trough at taxpayers expense to recognize the fact and to tighten up on their budgets instead. We are not selfish or callous. The lifestyle of the average income working man and woman in this state is being greatly compromised and it is the direct result of the tax burden we bear. |
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