New York can be proud that over 100 of the 300 semi-finalists in the Intel Science Competition come from our state. When you break out the data, it turns out that most of these students come from suburban districts in which state aid is a much smaller share of the budget than would be the case in rural districts.
Cuts in state education aid do not fall equally on all districts and students. If the local taxpayers are capable of shouldering a heavier tax burden, a cut of 5 or 10% in state aid gets shrugged off. In most rural districts, the same percentage cut is devastating.
Elizabeth Ruddy, a senior at Madrid-Waddington HS in northern NY, stole the show at a recent small city and rural schools advocacy day in Albany. Here's a video of her giving her speech a few weeks earlier at a rally in her home region. It's worth five minutes of your time.
tears of helplessness; we are no longer trying to build a democracy; a plutocracy, yes; an oligarchy, yes--and we're succeeding at that--george sebouhian
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