Click here to download the full report!

• The cuts in poor districts were three times as large as those in wealthy districts (see Methodology section for a description of the calculations and definitions).
• To put these cuts in perspective, cuts in poor districts of $843 per pupil amounts to a cut of $21,075 for a classroom of 25 students.
• Cuts in average wealth districts, below average wealth districts, poor districts and the poorest districts were all two to three times larger than those in wealthy districts.
• Students in poor districts were forced to give up much more in their classrooms than those in wealthy districts. Across the state class sizes went up in 63% of school districts, some districts went as far as to reduce kindergarten or pre-kindergarten from full-day to half day.  Large numbers of districts made cuts to summer school, art, music, and honors or advanced placement courses that are essential to competitive college applications. Across the state 11,000 teachers, librarians, guidance counselors and other school positions were eliminated this year.
• All of this despite the fact that Governor Cuomo ran on a pledge to be “the great equalizer” in education by redistributing funding from wealthy school districts to poor ones. Instead his first budget has taken us back to greater inequality.
• By contrast in 2007, the State made a commitment to schoolchildren across the state with the Campaign for Fiscal Equity settlement that provided increases to poor districts that were more than four times those given to wealthy districts. Governor Cuomo’s first budget has reversed the state’s commitment to educational equity and opportunity.

Click here to download PDF.

• The cuts in poor districts were three times as large as those in wealthy districts (see Methodology section for a description of the calculations and definitions).
• To put these cuts in perspective, cuts in poor districts of $843 per pupil amounts to a cut of $21,075 for a classroom of 25 students.
• Cuts in average wealth districts, below average wealth districts, poor districts and the poorest districts were all two to three times larger than those in wealthy districts.
• Students in poor districts were forced to give up much more in their classrooms than those in wealthy districts. Across the state class sizes went up in 63% of school districts, some districts went as far as to reduce kindergarten or pre-kindergarten from full-day to half day.  Large numbers of districts made cuts to summer school, art, music, and honors or advanced placement courses that are essential to competitive college applications. Across the state 11,000 teachers, librarians, guidance counselors and other school positions were eliminated this year.
• All of this despite the fact that Governor Cuomo ran on a pledge to be “the great equalizer” in education by redistributing funding from wealthy school districts to poor ones. Instead his first budget has taken us back to greater inequality.
• By contrast in 2007, the State made a commitment to schoolchildren across the state with the Campaign for Fiscal Equity settlement that provided increases to poor districts that were more than four times those given to wealthy districts. Governor Cuomo’s first budget has reversed the state’s commitment to educational equity and opportunity.

Click here to read the full report!

PPEF is one of a number of community-based organizations that were selected to provide consumer assistance in New York State with funds provided by Congress under the new federal health care law. For more information on the statewide program, click here.

If you want further information, to arrange a presentation, or individual assistance, please contact us by email or phone: Natalie Luczkowiak, nluczkowiak@ppefny.org, 716.852.4050.

Need help with a health care problem? Click here!

Does your group want a presentation about health care? Click here to submit a request.

Watch this page for updated information on our programs and your rights as a health care consumer!

Quality rating and improvement systems (QRIS) are designed to evaluate program quality based on universal standards for early childhood settings; communicate program quality to families by assigning them to “star ratings” similar to those used in other consumer ratings; and help programs continually improve quality through targeted supports.

Click here to download the PDF.

QUALITYstarsNY – Fact Sheet for Professionals

Quality rating and improvement systems (QRIS) are designed to evaluate program quality based on universal standards for early childhood settings; communicate program quality to families by assigning them to “star ratings” similar to those used in other consumer ratings; and help programs continually improve quality through targeted supports.

Click here to download the PDF.

QUALITYstarsNY – Stakeholders Fact Sheet

Quality rating and improvement systems (QRIS) are designed to evaluate program quality based on universal standards for early childhood settings; communicate program quality to families by assigning them to “star ratings” similar to those used in other consumer ratings; and help programs continually improve quality through targeted supports.

Click here to download the PDF.

QUALITYstarsNY – Parent Fact Sheet

One method that has been used in other states to improve the quality of early care and learning programs offered is implementation of a quality rating and improvement system, or “QRIS.” More than 20 states have already implemented similar initiatives with great success.

Here in New York, a new system called QUALITYstarsNY has just completed an initial field test in 200 early learning programs across the state. QUALITYstarsNY is a system that rates early care and learning programs, and also provides those programs with the programmatic and financial assistance they need to improve.

Because of the instrumental role that early learning programs play in developing our kids’ minds to prepare them for college and successful careers, it is important to ensure that the program they attend are meeting certain requirements.

QUALITYstarsNY is a straightforward rating system that evaluates early childhood programs on a five-star scale. By holding these programs to strict guidelines, parents will be able to rest assured their children are not left behind and remain on a level playing field with other students across the state.

Watch this new video about the program that we produced along with our friends at WinningBeginningNY:

Want to learn more? Here are three fact sheets you can download (click the title to download a PDF).

• QUALITYstarsNY fact sheet for parents.
• QUALITYstarsNY fact sheet for stakeholders.
• QUALITYstarsNY fact sheet for professionals.

We know many candidates run for office and elected officials go to Albany ready to make positive concrete changes in the lives of their constituents. But they are met with a system of elections that discourages them from the start and a system that casts a shadow of corruption: New York’s loophole ridden and weak campaign finance system.

For these reasons and more, PPEF is dedicated to working to toward a system of public financing of elections in New York State.

What is public financing of elections? Instead of candidates raising a lot of large contributions from wealthy donors, a voluntary system of public financing of elections allows candidates to run for office by collecting many small donations and receiving public funds to run their campaign.

Public financing puts political power and the power to make real changes in our communites back into the hands of the people, the voters – not large, corporate campaign donors whose contributions carry weight in the halls of the Capital. We know, if we want effective environmental policies, real tenant protections, health care that works well for all of us, fair utility rates, and more, we have to end the undue influence oil companies, real estate, pharmaceuticals, the insurance industry, and other big lobby groups have because their financial power blocks good laws from being passed and influences passage of bills that hurt the public.

Public financing also helps to level the playing field and gives people from many different backgrounds, including more women and more people of color who are traditionally outspent in campaigns, a fair shot at getting elected without owing favors to corporate interests and lobbyists.

We know public financing of elections works. 26 states have enacted some kind of public financing of election systems including Maine, Arizona, New Mexico, North Carolina and Vermont. New York City has used a “matching funds” public financing system for its citywide and city council races since 1980.

For more than a decade, Public Policy and Education Fund of New York has been a leading voice for campaign finance reform, specifically, public financing of election campaigns, in New York State. Through our valuable research and analysis of campaign contributions and policy options, as well as public education, leadership development and community outreach, PPEF has become a valued source of information on the issue of public financing of elections.

We currently work with partner in the good government community, environmental advocates, health care advocates, consumer rights organizations, and many others who understand, unless we make this fundamental change to our democratic system, government can never truly only consider the needs of the people of New York State. PPEF has trained hundreds of volunteers and activists across New York to give presentations on the issue of Clean Elections public financing. We have held dozens of Town Hall Meetings and Public Forums on the issue and been a source for reporters and policy makers. We have done in depth analysis on the various types of public financing systems that could work for New York State. Through our research reports on campaign contributions to the legislature and statewide offices, we’ve exemplified the need for change and explained the policy solutions.

The recommendations cover five major areas: 1) consumer-oriented governance; 2) consumer assistance; 3) affordable health insurance rates; 4) consumer rights; and 5) reduction of racial and ethnic disparities in health care. Among the report’s major recommendations are:

• strong consumer representation on the governing board of the New York exchange, the health insurance “marketplace” that must be created by the state by 2014;
• aggressive consumer enforcement through a significant increase in penalties that may be recovered by the State Insurance Department against health insurers that violate the new federal law, a state exchange that can exclude health plans that sell lower quality products, and a strong role in enforcement by new Attorney General Eric Schneiderman;
• a permanent independent consumer assistance office to coordinate community-based organizations across the state to assist consumers with disputes with health insurers, enroll consumers in health insurance, and help consumers select health insurance plans;
• reform of the health insurance rate regulation system that was reinstituted in New York in 2010 to allow consumers to meaningfully participate in rate proceedings;
• expansion of consumer rights by allowing consumers harmed by serious violations of health insurance laws to recover their damages in court (known as a “private right of action”); and
• reduction of health care disparities based on race, ethnicity and other factors: by designating a single state entity to oversee collection of disparities data and to make this information available to the public at no charge through the Internet.

Click here to read for the report.