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Health & Fitness

Why East Ramapo IS a County Issue

When my parents moved to Rockland 30 years ago, they came here because Rockland was home to low taxes, clean water, and good schools. Their story is similar to many, seeking refuge from the urban congestion in favor of suburban tranquility. 

Yet 30 years later, that promise of a suburban oasis has faded. We pay some of the nation's highest taxes and county government is still paralyzed by deficit in excess of $100 million. We have a foreign-owned utility company trying to sell us on the idea of drinking Hudson River water. 

But at least we have good schools, right? 

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For those in Orangetown, Clarkstown, Haverstraw, Stony Point, and parts of Ramapo, the promise of a quality education is a promise fulfilled. For those in East Ramapo schools, it's promise broken. 

East Ramapo isn't the school district it was when my parents moved here. It's not the same district it was even just a decade ago. Instead, it's a faint shadow of the school I remember. To fill budget gaps and shortfalls, anything and everything that could be cut has been cut: Arts, Music, Sports, after-school clubs, foreign language, and kindergarten are just some of the draconian cuts made by the current school board. These cuts are destroying the schools, dimming the prospects of a higher education for too many, and dooming us to a generation lost. 

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Across the county, the travesty that is East Ramapo dominates the conversation. Outside the district, people are concerned – they have friends and family whose schools are crumbling. Within East Ramapo, the mood is grim – hope extinguished, too many budgets voted down and board members with agendas voted in. Young families are terrified about their children's future; seniors are worried they won't be able to sell their homes. 

As a former Judge, I have seen the devastation of the budget cuts. I would look at some of the defendants and wonder, what went wrong? When I was their age, after the bell rang, I was still at Spring Valley High School. My friends and I were in various clubs, some played sports, and others were in band or chorus. Now when the bell rings, there's an eerie silence that echoes louder than the laughter and conversation of years past. 

Are these bad kids? No, they're good kids who made often foolish decisions. In my court, I never wanted to prejudge someone, measure them by what often was the worst mistake of their life. I knew that the school district was slashing programs, leaving them at a competitive disadvantage in the academic and business marketplace. An East Ramapo diploma just isn't worth the same as a diploma from any other district in Rockland. The kids aren't failing school; the school is failing the kids. 

Yet still, when people talk about East Ramapo, you don't hear any solutions, only blame. Instead, we must engage in a conversation about how to move the district forward. Should we divide the secular and religious communities of East Ramapo and create two separate school districts? Would it be easier to have one county school district, sacrificing local control in favor of reduced bureaucracy and overhead costs? Could a ward system, with school board seats apportioned by population and geography, give public school parents the strong voice they deserve? Our deficit – one not just of money, but of ideas – threatens our future. I'm not for or against any proposal. I'm for having a conversation. I'm against dismissing any idea that could help just because it wasn't my idea. 

It would be far easier to say, 'it's not my child, not my community, not my problem'. For some County Executive candidates, they embrace this mentality of 'out of sight, out of mind'. They look to change the subject, use excuses about jurisdiction and the limits of the office. Their silence, however, speaks volumes by itself; their priorities clear. 

Education is everything. If you raise graduation rates, you lower crime; if you lower crime, you attract business; if you attract businesses, you lower unemployment; you lower unemployment, you increase quality of life. Education is everything. 

Schools should be incredibly expensive to operate and open to everyone without regard to class or ethnicity. Public schools are a reflection of a community's values, its priorities. And what's happening in East Ramapo affects all of Rockland – that's why silence is unacceptable, it's why the status quo won't make due, and it's why I'm speaking out. 

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