Proposition 3 would allow the state to borrow $2 billion for educational technology. It is supported by Cuomo and the teacher’s union. The Empire Center, a conservative think tank, has called it a “blank check” to the state’s education bureaucracy. Read More
Dr. Amy Perry-DelCorvo, CEO of NYSCATE (NYS Association for Computers and Technologies in Education), and E.J. McMahon, senior fellow for Tax and Budgetary Studies at the Manhattan Institute and president of the Empire Center for Public Policy, debate the merits of New York’s ballot proposal #3, a bond act to fund technology for schools. Read More
E.J. McMahon, president of the fiscally conservative Empire Center for Public Policy in Albany, said the defenses of the county program closely mirror those employed in favor of the state's now largely defunct $170 million annual legislative member item "slush fund." "The usual answer is, 'We know our own districts better than anybody.' ... It's basically the same argument on a smaller scale," McMahon said. "There's no shortage of worthy things. You can't be bankrolling every charity." Read More
After more than five years as chancellor of the State University of New York, Nancy Zimpher is on the verge of getting a substantial pay raise, according to interviews. Read More
BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) -- With the Common Core taking a hit during an education-heavy campaign season, a coalition supporting the learning standards has released an analysis that concludes repealing them would be a costly mistake."It's a lose-l Read More
Empire Center president E.J. McMahon joined Nick Reisman to discuss the problems with Prop 3. Read More
"The first year the governor came in with $6 billion in federal stimulus that just disappeared overnight," said E.J. McMahon of The Empire Center, a non-partisan think tank. "Federal cash propped up school aid, Medicaid, and it was coming to an end. It was foreseeable, but that doesn't lessen the fact that the governor had to cut spending...he simply could not afford to replace the federal stimulus." Read More
"It's a tale of two states, and there's quite a sharp divergence," said Edmund McMahon, an economic analyst and president of the conservative-leaning Empire Center for Public Policy. Read More