Well-founded or not, a majority of New Yorkers who voted in 2021 had misgivings on the merits of no-excuse absentee voting. They rejected the same scheme the Early Mail Voting Law now imposes. They voted to maintain the status quo of the prior 55 years and their will should prevail because the Early Mail Voting Act is unconstitutional as a matter of legal interpretation and the history and tradition in New York's Constitution. Read More
How do New York public schools spend 36 percent more per student than neighboring Massachusetts while getting inferior results? Former Massachusetts State Board of Education member Dr. Roberta Schaefer identifies key differences in education policy between the two states. Read More
New Yorkers will to vote this November on Ballot Proposal 1—a proposition to amend equal protection clause of the state Constitution. If approved by the voters in November, Prop One’s changes to the state’s equal protection laws could throw New York civil rights into turmoil. Read More
School districts presenting budgets to voters next Tuesday plan to spend an average of $33,404 per student, up 4.4 percent from the current school year, according to new state data. Read More
The latest federal data show New York's public school system has the highest per-pupil spending of any state; New York City has the highest per-pupil spending among the nation’s 50 largest school districts; and New York teachers have the highest average pay while pupil-teacher ratio is among the lowest. Read More
This report analyzes how well 66 executive branch agencies are using the internet and technology platforms to meet their FOIL obligations (see table below). It evaluates how user-friendly agency websites are for making FOIL requests. And it examines to what extent agencies are using, or not using, technology to make both the agency’s and the public’s FOIL experiences better. Read More
As state budget preparations head into their final weeks, a confrontation is brewing over Medicaid, the state-run health plan for the low-income and disabled. Governor Hochul has holding the state’s $36 billion share of Medicaid funding essenti Read More
The headlong, secretive process around implementing New York's 2019 Climate Act – inherited from a governor who resigned in disgrace – runs the risk of saddling New Yorkers with both a less reliable electrical grid and rules across the entire economy that impose enormous expense. Read More