Rockland County Executive Presses Albany For East Ramapo Schools Monitor
NEW CITY, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) -- Rockland County's executive spent Monday lobbying in Albany for a monitor in the East Ramapo Central School District.
Executive Ed Day says the financially troubled school district is failing and losing children to the penal system.
It must be fixed, he told WCBS 880's Sean Adams.
Day urged Senate Republicans to support a bill for a state watchdog with veto power. Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos, R-Rockville Centre, would have to give the proposal a thumbs-up.
Last year, Hank Greenberg, a state-appointed fiscal monitor, uncovered inequities in the school district. His report concluded the Orthodox and Hasidic board members seemed to favor the interests of 24,000 yeshiva students at the expense of 9,000 in the public schools, who are mostly black and Hispanic.
"Greenberg made it very clear," Day said. "Again, while he absolved the board from doing anything intentionally, he said they lost sight of the fact that there's an entire community of children that must be tended to."
Board members have disputed Greenberg's findings and say the district needs more state aid.
Day noted that Rabbi Adam Baldachin of the Montebello Jewish Center and Rockland Clergy for Social Justice spoke for many members of the Jewish faith in support of the legislation.
"Some make this a religious issue," Day said. "This is not. This is a financial issue. This is an issue of equal opportunity for all students."