Assemblymember Cook met with Elder Dr. Michael A. Baston, Pastor of St. Luke Cathedral Church of Laurelton on his recent visit to Albany.

• AMS Post - Baccalaureate Match Program
• Association of Community Organizations for Reform NOW (ACORN)
• August Martin High School
• Brooks Senior Center
• Community Baptist Church
• CUNY - Heywood Burns
• CUNY Law CLRN - Community Legal Resource Network
• Evelyn Douglin Center for Serving People in Need
• Family Planning Services
• Friends of Rochdale Village Adult Learning Center
• Jamaica Chamber of Commerce
• Jamaica YMCA
• LP Family Youth Organization, Inc.
• Movement of the Dancenter, Inc.
• Neighborhood Housing Services of Jamaica, Inc.
• New York AIDS Coalition
• Prisoners’ Legal Services of New York
• Queens Child Guidance Center, Inc.
• Queens Educational Opportunity Center (EOC)
• Queens Health Center
• Queens Legal Services Corporation
• Rochdale Village Social Services (NORC)

The state budget makes a significant investment in New York’s higher education system and provides college students with the resources they need to succeed. The budget increases operating aid for SUNY/CUNY and community colleges, does not raise tuition at these institutions, and continues to fund the Tuition Assistance Program (TAP) and higher education opportunity programs. The budget provides $62 million more than the governor proposed for higher education, and $278.5 million more than last year. To help these institutions maintain high standards and attract the best faculty, this budget increases operating aid over the governor’s budget by $10 million for SUNY and $6 million for CUNY, for a total of $1.34 billion and $1.06 billion respectively.

The state budget adds $7 million more than last year for Educational Opportunity Centers and Attain Labs to help students of all ages acquire new skills and succeed in the workforce.

To help ward off tuition increases or local property tax hikes the budget increases state support for community colleges by $150 per full-time equivalent student over last year. Statewide, SUNY community colleges will receive $8.16 million over the governor’s budget and $24.4 million over last year. CUNY community colleges will receive $3 million over the executive proposal and $9.4 million over last year.

To help working families afford a college education the budget provides a 3 percent, or $3.1 million, increase over last year in programs such as EOP, HEOP, SEEK, and Liberty Partnerships. The College Discovery program increased 5 percent.

The state budget reflects our commitment to our public colleges and universities and the future of our college students. This funding will help our academic institutions run more efficiently so that they can continue to prepare our students to be our leaders of tomorrow.

EDUCATION

The final state budget makes a historic investment in New York’s education system, providing an unprecedented $1.7 billion increase to help students succeed in an ever-changing global economy.

The Assembly has long championed an educational approach that stresses three Rs - Reform + Resources = Results, and this year’s budget is certainly the right equation for our children.

A historic investment in our schools
Under the largest education investment in New York State history, New York City School Districts will receive over $7.5 billion.

The final state budget continues our effort in the Assembly to help provide every single one of our children with not just a sound, basic education - but a first-class, quality education that will help them be successful in life.

Included in the budget is the governor’s new foundation education formula for predictable, stable and transparent funding - something the Assembly has insisted on for over a decade.

Reducing class sizes
The budget requires New York City to prepare a Contract for Excellence that must include, among other initiatives, a plan to reduce average class sizes within five years in the specified grade ranges and class size reduction for low performing and overcrowded schools.

Comparing the average class size in New York City to the rest of the state reveals an overwhelming disparity - a disparity we must end. The spending plan steers state aid coming to the city to comply with the Campaign for Fiscal Equity ruling toward this important goal.

No matter how experienced and dedicated the teacher, when there are too many children in a classroom, it’s inevitable that some children will slip through the cracks. This is something that we can prevent. All the research indicates that smaller classes improve student performance, and the bipartisan budget addresses this issue.

Expanding early education
The budget provides $60.3 million more to advance the Assembly’s plan to provide statewide universal pre-K and ensure that every 4-year-old in the state has the opportunity to get a head start on school. New York City Local District will receive over $249 million for pre-K.

This expansion will allow more New York children to reap the lasting benefits of attending pre-K, which studies show again and again give our children an advantage in student achievement, college enrollment and future earnings.

Charter Schools
The state budget authorizes 100 more charter schools while instituting reforms to ease the financial impact on local school districts, increase accountability, and ensure communities have a voice in where they are located.

This budget plan will help ensure charter schools open in communities where they make sense, while protecting the students who attend our traditional public schools.

Reforms include:

• Providing $22.5 million in transitional aid to school districts that host charter schools;
• Increasing public notification and input during the application process for the approval or renewal of a charter school;
• Improving the charter school approval process and a public hearing in communities potentially receiving new charter schools; and
• Requiring notice and a public hearing when a charter school seeks to share space with the traditional school.

Raising standards in our schools
The Assembly supported the governor’s Contract for Excellence between the state and school districts receiving significant funding, and with schools requiring academic progress, as determined by existing benchmarks, to use proven strategies to improve the standards and success of our schools.

There will be no more excuses for failure. Education is the key to success, and that’s why the Assembly supports raising the bar in our schools.

The Assembly worked hard to come together with the governor and Senate to pass a state budget that makes a historic investment in New York State’s educational system. This support will undoubtedly better prepare our children for higher education and to compete in a changing world.

Assemblymember Cook greets Attorney General Andrew Cuomo on the day his bill modeled after his College Loan Code of Conduct Act was considered by the Legislature.

Specifically, the Student Lending, Accountability, Transparency and Enforcement Act:

• prohibits gift-giving from lenders to colleges and universities in exchange for any advantage in loan activities and bans colleges and universities from accepting such gifts as well;
• imposes a complete ban on gifts from lenders to college employees;
• bars college and university employees from receiving any compensation for serving on a lender’s advisory board;
• prohibits lender employees and agents from posing as college or university employees;
• bans lenders and schools from agreeing to certain quid-pro-quo, high-risk loans;
• provides for civil penalties of up to $50,000 for lending institutions and colleges and $7,500 for employees; and
• requires colleges to tell inquiring students about public loans - which may be a better option - before talking to them about private loans.

Lenders and colleges must not manipulate a student’s decision about which company to borrow from. After all, it’s an $85-billion-a-year industry. It’s time for scrutiny and accountability. The Assembly’s SLATE legislation targets deceptive and illegal tactics, while protecting New York’s students and higher-education system.

Assemblymember Cook endorses the Assembly’s 2007 Summer Reading Challenge as a great way to spend your free time.

The New York State Assembly helps children and parents pick up the reading habit through its annual Summer Reading Challenge program. To earn a New York State Assembly Excellence in Reading Certificate, children must read with a parent for 15 minutes a day, for at least 40 days during July and August.

"It probably amounts to less time than a youngster spends getting dressed in the morning," Assemblymember Cook said. "It’s a great opportunity for kids to get away from their televisions, video games, computers and iPods. They can learn just about anything by reading and have a lot of fun doing it. Reading improves speech, vocabulary, pronunciation and listening. It’s a wonderful way to spend time with family and friends."

Assemblymember Cook said the initiative is part of the Assembly’s commitment to offering young people a quality education. The state budget passed recently makes a historic investment in New York’s education system, providing an unprecedented $1.7 billion increase to help students gain valuable knowledge and succeed in an ever-changing global economy.

"Books connect students to knowledge," Assemblymember Cook said. "Reading matters. Children who read have a better command of language, do better in other subjects, and can better analyze, think and cope in our increasingly complex world."

For information about the Assembly’s 2007 Summer Reading Challenge, write Assemblymember Cook at 142-15 Rockaway Blvd., Jamaica, NY 11436; send an e-mail to Cookv@assembly.state.ny.us; or call Assemblymember Cook’s district office at (718) 322-3975.

I am pleased to announce that Rochdale Village Community Library will receive a grant of $191,248 and the South Jamaica Community Library will receive a grant of $149,422. These libraries will receive funding from a one-time allocation of $14 million in capital funds for public library construction provided by the New York State Legislature in the 2006-2007 state budget.

New York’s public libraries are in urgent need of renovation and upgrading. A recent survey showed a documented need for public library construction and renovation projects totaling $1.7 billion. More than 40% of the over 1,000 public library buildings in communities across New York are over 60 years old. Another 30% are more than three decades old. Many of New York’s local public libraries are unable to accommodate users with disabilities, cannot provide Internet and computer and other electronic technologies to users because of outdated and inadequate electrical wiring, do not have sufficient space to house the library’s collection, and lack sufficient space for public access computers. Public library construction grants help local libraries and library systems to update electrical wiring to accommodate computer technology, renovate facilities to provide wheelchair accessible entrances and lavatories and to become fully accessible to library users with disabilities, and provide meeting rooms to accommodate community needs. These grants are separate from the ongoing annual appropriation.