February 24, 2009
Hon. Robert Jackson
250 Broadway
Rm. 1747
New York, NY 10007
Hon. David Weprin
250 Broadway
18th Floor
New York, NY 10007
re: elimination of funding for JROTC in the FY 2010 budget
Dear Councilmembers Jackson and Weprin:
The undersigned organizations write to ask that in its response to the Mayor’s Budget, the New York City Council, led by its Education and Finance Committees which you chair, eliminate the approximately $2.3 million of taxpayer funds that will be used to support the JROTC program in the FY 2010 budget for the Department of Education. At a time when the Mayor’s Budget calls for the laying off thousands of teachers, New York City’s resource-starved educational system can find far better uses for $2.3 million of taxpayer money.
While we have been unable to locate the precise budget line proposed for taxpayer support of JROTC in the FY 2010 budget, attached you will find information breaking out the $2,192,313 in the current FY 2009 budget and the $1,872,636 appropriated in the FY 2008 budget. Extrapolating the 8.5% increase from FY 2008 to FY 2009 to the FY 2010 budget leads to a projection of an expenditure of $2,379,536 in FY 2010.
As the attached indicates, the Federal government is paying slightly less than half the costs of this program. We believe that this sets a dangerous precedent of having individuals who do not possess the requisite qualifications to be a New York State certified-teacher to be employed in the DOE.
But more importantly, JROTC should be just about the lowest priority for the NYC DOE in the current or any other budget. You know better than most how under-resourced the City’s schools have been and continue to be, whether it be for classrooms, textbooks, teacher salaries, full time kindergarten - the list of desperate funding needs is long, and growing under the Mayor’s Budget, a problem that the Federal stimulus bill will not solve. If the JROTC program is so vital to the Federal government, it should be willing to fund it, rather than making this yet another unfunded mandate on our municipality.
The overwhelming majority of NYC taxpayers have no idea that they are funding JROTC, and we submit that if they were informed of this fact, they would act to oppose such funding. We understand that the Mayor has included funding for JROTC in his proposed FY 2010 budget. The budgetary process allows the Council to make changes in the Mayor’s budget, and the undersigned organizations urge the Council to eliminate this line item in its response to the Mayor’s budget. This unnecessary subsidy towards militarism should have no place in City’s FY 2010 budget, and we ask that you and the Council act promptly to recover these funds for far more important educational priorities.
We look forward to your, and the Council’s leadership on this significant educational issue. This letter is being delivered to Speaker Christine Quinn and to all Members of the Council.
May we please hear from you.
Very Truly Yours
Lisa North
UFTers To Stop The War
Lucy Koteen, President
Central Brooklyn Independent Democats
Rosemarie Pace, Director
Pax Christi Metro New York
Barbara Harris, Chair Counterrecruitment
Code Pink NYC Women For Peace
Judy Lear, Convenor
Gray Panthers, NYC
Gloria Mattera, Coordinating Committee
Park Slope Greens
Leslie Kielson
United for Peace and Justice, NYC
Eva Lee- Baird
Granny Peace Brigade
Joan Wile, Founder/Director
Grandmothers Against the War
Lillian Rydell, President
Westside Peace Action
Jim Moschella
War Resisters League, NYC
Molly Klopot, Chair
Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, NY Metro (WILPF)
Abby Scher, Chair
Brooklyn Society for Ethical Culture Social Action Committee
Cheryl Wertz, Executive Director
Peace Action New York State
David Tykulsker, Vice Chair
Brooklyn For Peace
Jessica Watson-Crosby
Black Radical Congress – NYC
Michael Hersh
Metro NY, Progressive Democrats of America
Perry O’Brien
Iraq Veterans Against War Chapter 2
cc: Christine Quinn, Speaker
all members of City Council
Individuals signing on:
Elaine Brower
Mother of United States Marine Corps. Reservist on 3rd tour of duty in Iraq
New York City Chapter, Military Families Speak Out
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