HARCKHAM: I’LL CUT OFF YOUR SCHOOL’S FUNDING IF
ITS SPORTS MASCOT OFFENDS ANYONE!
ASTORINO: NEW YORK HAS REAL PROBLEMS;
THIS AIN'T ONE OF ‘EM.
Hudson Valley-July 14...
With New York State facing at least a $13 billion deficit, State Senator Peter Harckham (SD 40) has a novel budget cutting solution: Eliminate state funding from any public school that has a sports mascot that could in any way be construed as offensive. Harckham’s just-introduced bill (S-8708) comes as hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers remain unemployed due to the Coronavirus lockdown, and the state is struggling to set workable guidelines for reopening schools for millions of children.
Harckham’s bill, which targets schools with mascots “derived from a specific race or ethnicity” would apply to several schools within his district, including Mahopac High School (Indians, $32.1 million loss in aid), Valhalla High School (Vikings, $5.6 million), and Horace Greeley High School (Quakers, $9.5 million.) Other area schools are named after historical figures now under attack, such as Christopher Columbus, and Mr. Astorino warned that changing them will be next on the never-ending political correctness agenda. Mr. Harckham’s bill to strip education aid would result in massive local tax increases, Mr. Astorino noted.
“Parents have enough concerns about getting their children safely back into the classroom without having to worry about their schools being shut down over political correctness run amok,” Mr. Astorino said. “But even more than that, this knee-jerk legislation calls into question the priorities of our state elected officials, namely Pete Harckham. With all the challenges facing us as New Yorkers — with all the economic suffering middle- and working-class families are experiencing — this is the bill Senator Harckham introduces? It’s idiotic and more in line with the agenda of Bill de Blasio than residents of the Hudson Valley.”
The former county executive called on Mr. Harckham to immediately withdraw this “asinine” legislation.
“As state senator, I’ll introduce legislation to provide Hudson Valley schools with their fair share of state education funding, to protect taxpayers from wasteful Albany spending, to repeal Harckham’s dangerous “bail reform” law, to rebuild New York’s economy, and to enact term limits, among other things,” Mr. Astorino said. “Innocuous school mascots are nowhere on my list. There’s real work to be done.”
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