(Photo: @NYSEDNEWS)
When voting Nov. 7, 2017 on whether to call a state constitutional convention, New Yorkers should consider enhancing social welfare rights
New York’s Constitution mandates that every 20 years New Yorkers be asked via a statewide ballot referendum whether they want to call a state constitutional convention. The next such referendum is on the ballot on November 7. If passed, the agenda for the constitutional convention that then occurs should include enhancing social welfare rights, including healthy public schools.
The state constitutional convention held in New York in 1938 passed amendments mandating healthy work conditions for government employees, including healthy work hours. These amendments were added at a time when the conditions in public schools were very different. For example, the one-room schoolhouse remained common, dedicated public bus transportation to schools was just emerging, and forcing children to attend school before dawn was exceptional. If New York’s Constitution guarantees healthy work conditions for government employees, it should do the same for children attending public schools, who have even less choice over the place and hours of their work.
The Proposal
I recommend two additions to New York’s Constitution. Currently, its bill of rights includes the following provision: “Labor of human beings is not a commodity nor an article of commerce and shall never be so considered or construed. No laborer, worker or mechanic, in the employ of a contractor or sub-contractor engaged in the performance of any public work, shall be permitted to work more than eight hours in any day or more than five days in any week, except in cases of extraordinary emergency.”
Analogous to this bill of rights for government employees (“labor”), I recommend one for public-school students: “The state shall not compel students to sacrifice fundamental biological needs to attend public school.” This would include forced attendance at school prior to dawn and at times that make it impossible to get appropriate sleep.
I also recommend adding a health provision to the education clause in the main body of the Constitution (addition marked in italics): “The legislature shall provide for the maintenance and support of a system of free and healthy common schools, wherein all the children of this state may be educated.”
Note that in New York’s Constitution the term “common schools” refers to what we nowadays call public schools. Although this clause may appear vague and unenforceable to the casual reader, New York’s top court has interpreted it to mean that the Constitution guarantees every New York student, including disabled, delinquent, neglected, and dependent children, a “sound basic education” through high school.
As applied to school start times, the proposed change to the education clause could be interpreted to entail a due process requirement when a public-school district mandates pre-dawn start times; for example, that a school district couldn’t arbitrarily schedule a poor child to take a public-school bus at 5:55 a.m. (before dawn) to attend a high school starting at 7:17 a.m. (also before dawn during winter months) without providing a reasoned, public explanation for its decision that explicitly considers children’s health and safety.
Manageable court remedies for a school district with persistent unhealthy bus pickup or school start times could include mandating a healthy time or, less onerously, that the district offer the harmed students a voucher based on the district’s current average student cost. The voucher could then be used to allow the student to get a sound healthy education at another school.
It’s arguable that New York’s clause, “No person shall be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law” already includes a right to sleep and health more generally. For example, on February 28, 2016, India’s Supreme Court ruled that “sleep is a fundamental human right” based on the clause in its constitution protecting the “right to life.” But given the history and wording of New York’s Constitution, such a court interpretation in the context of public schools is unlikely.
New York also has a clause mandating that its “state board of social welfare shall make inspections… as to matters directly affecting the health, safety, treatment and training of [reformatory institutions’] inmates.” But public school children are clearly exempt from this requirement.
Other social welfare clauses likely to be proposed at a New York State constitutional convention would be a guarantee of affordable basic healthcare coverage for all; affordable, debt-free tuition at public institutions of higher education; and a clean and healthy environment, including water and air. Redefining the definition of “needy” in the “aid, care and support of the needy” clause would also be likely. Consequently, it could be smart politics for the social welfare groups backing such proposals to form an alliance prior to the Nov. 7 referendum.
The Process and Opposition
The constitutional convention process grants the public three votes (see graphic): 1) whether to call a convention, 2) who to elect to a convention, and 3) whether to approve any of the convention’s proposals. The purpose of the mandatory referendum provision is to provide a mechanism to bypass the Legislature when the Legislature would otherwise have veto power over constitutional amendments involving its own power and the special interests to which it is beholden. In other states, the constitutional initiative serves a similar function, albeit in a less deliberative and democratic way.
Since the institution of a constitutional convention is a check on the Legislature, its natural enemies include the Legislature and any powerful special interest group that has a successful track record of influencing the Legislature. Coalition partners of these groups, who fear opposing their most powerful allies, are also its natural enemies, which may entail either taking a neutral position or actively opposing a measure that, absent the imperatives of coalition politics, they would support. Alas, many of these coalition partners are social welfare groups.
A primary argument that state constitutional convention opponents make is that a convention cannot be controlled by the Legislature and is thus a “Pandora’s Box.” But that is its prime virtue because if a Legislature could limit its agenda it would defeat the purpose of calling a state constitutional convention in the first place.
The more relevant question is whether the people can be trusted to vote in their own self-interest. For thousands of years, the enemies of democracy argued that the people were incapable of making reasoned judgments about their own self-interest. They have a point, but in the long run actions premised on the people’s incapacity for democracy—including their incapacity to override a legislature’s veto power over constitutional amendment—have proven far more harmful.
Conclusion
The health of our children should not be subject to the special interest politics that too often dominate American public education and intimidate parents whose children are held hostage. If Big Education views the cost of healthy public schools as a zero-sum game that comes out of its members’ paychecks, then it should be bypassed. In New York, the only available bypass mechanism is the state constitutional convention. If government workers have a right to healthy work conditions, so do children—even more so because they are children and have no say in the matter.
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J.H. Snider, the president of iSolon.org, is the editor of The New York State Constitutional Convention Clearinghouse and author of Does the World Really Belong to the Living? The Decline of the Constitutional Convention in New York and Other US States, 1776–2015.
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I came to this country at the age of two. I have grown up in this country for over two decades, and I am a New Yorker through and through. New York City is where I go to school, where I work, and the place my family and I call home.
But my life here, and my family’s life, is at risk because I am a “Dreamer.” My only protection from being separated from my family is Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA).
Donald Trump’s administration has already started trying to tear apart families like mine, including detaining Dreamers like me. Daniel Ramírez, a Dreamer, was detained in Washington. Daniela Vargas, also a Dreamer, was detained in Mississippi. Whether or not Trump decides to repeal DACA, it is clear that our families are under attack.
But, for immigrants like me, there is one key lesson from the first months of the new administration: when we fight back, we win.
When Trump issued the Muslim and refugee ban, it was enormous grassroots opposition, coupled with legal advocacy, that blocked these policies.
When Daniel and Daniela were detained, it was a groundswell of popular support—protests, petitions, and more—that got them free.
When Trump and Paul Ryan tried to repeal the Affordable Care Act and take health insurance away from tens of millions of people, it was ordinary people taking to the streets, town halls, and congressional offices that defeated them.
Despite these early losses, Trump shows no signs of slowing down his anti-immigrant agenda. Having failed to pass healthcare reform, Trump now wants to pass a budget that will allow him to build a wall that we don’t need and spend billions more to terrorize our families. But our communities will defeat his wall and his budget in the same way we’ve beaten him on his other priorities: by taking to the streets.
That’s why, on Monday May 1, at 5pm in Foley Square, I’m joining a coalition of dozens of immigrant, community, and labor organizations to rally for immigrant rights and workers’ rights.
On May 1, whether you were born here or in another country, whatever you believe in or however you got here—we need to stand together and resist together. With 50,000 people packed into Foley Square, we will demand that Trump stop his unjust attacks towards our communities.
Immigrant families are under attack. Workers’ rights are in jeopardy. And Muslims and refugees are in the crosshairs of this administration. Together, we will send a strong message of resistance against Trump’s agenda of hate.
As immigrants, we demand a stop to Trump’s anti-immigrant policies that are separating families throughout the nation and seeking to terrorize us all.
As workers, we demand good jobs, the right to organize and join a union, and for Congress to pass a federal budget that reflects our priorities.
As New Yorkers, we demand respect and dignity for all.
On May 1, with 50,000 people in the streets, we will show that we will not live in fear and that we stand united for a better future for all New Yorkers.
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Yatziri Tovar is a Youth Power Project member of Make the Road New York, the largest grassroots community organization in New York offering services and organizing the immigrant community. On Twitter: @maketheroadny.
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Gov. Cuomo (photo: Kevin P. Coughlin/Governor's Office)
Governor Andrew Cuomo's April 10 announcement on the passage of the state budget cited several new initiatives and innovations that were included in the budget bills for the new 2017-2018 fiscal year, which began April 1.
But history suggests that at least three of them actually are not really new.
Tuition-free SUNY and CUNY
"With the 2018 Budget, New York leads the nation by making college tuition-free at SUNY and CUNY two- and four-year colleges for working and middle-class families making up to $125,000 per year," says the governor's announcement.
That sounds like a major step forward. Actually, it is something of a reversion to the original philosophy of the two public university systems. SUNY, established in 1948, was created in part as a result of the rising cost of higher education after World War II. Its units were mostly tuition-free or very low tuition until the 1960s. CUNY, established in 1961, was mostly tuition-free or low tuition until 1976. The tuition-free policy was discontinued that year as a result of New York City's fiscal crisis.
But since then, state and federal grants have been available to help low-income students at CUNY as well as at SUNY. The new policy at least partly hearkens back to policies and ideals of the past rather than departing from them.
"Raise the Age"
"The FY 2018 State Budget raises the age of criminal responsibility to 18-years-old and ensures that young people who commit non-violent crimes receive the intervention and evidence-based treatment they need," notes the governor's announcement. "New York was previously one of only two states in the nation that automatically processed all 16- and 17-year-olds as adults in the criminal justice system, no matter their offense."
The governor is certainly right in calling attention to this as a major reform. He deserves credit for its enactment. But proposals to raise the age date back quite a ways. As Governor Cuomo's Commission on Youth, Public Safety and Juvenile Justice noted in its 2014 report, Recommendations for Juvenile Justice Reform in New York State, which advocated for the change, most states raised the age many years ago. New York was one of the few states not to take this step despite criticism from youth advocates, recommendations from its own State Crime Commission in a report dating from 1931, and other experts.
Shrinking local government
"The FY 2018 Budget continues the Governor's efforts to relieve the property tax burden and builds on the success of the 2 percent property tax cap," says the Governor's announcement. "The typical New York homeowner pays 2.5 times more in local property taxes than in state income taxes. The Budget will empower citizens to control the cost of local government by requiring counties to assemble local governments to find efficiencies for real, recurring taxpayer savings. To ensure transparency and an active role for citizens in reducing their tax burden, public hearings and input will be required as part of the development of the shared services plans."
New York has about 4,000 local governments. The governor's initiative is a fresh variation on an old theme: reducing the number of local governments, consolidating them, or urging them to share services in order to reduce the burden on taxpayers.
History suggests Governor Cuomo's new initiative may have a hard time getting traction.
New Yorkers may complain about taxes, but they seem indifferent to state initiatives to eliminate or consolidate services. Consolidation threatens the jobs of local officials. Citizens are apprehensive about changing something that is familiar even if it means greater efficiencies and more economical operation.
In 2013, Cuomo offered a program of state support to promote reduction of local governments through consolidation. There was little interest.
Governor Eliot Spitzer appointed a Commission on Local Government Efficiency and Competitiveness.
Governor George Pataki had a Commission on Local Government Reform.
Governor Mario Cuomo appointed a Commission on Consolidation of Local Governments.
None made any appreciable headway.
In 1935, Governor Herbert Lehman told the Legislature that "There are too many units of government in the State of New York and...the resulting complexity of local government cannot produce efficiency or economy." Legislators were not interested.
In 1929, Governor Franklin Roosevelt asserted "even the school children know that we maintain many useless offices in our towns, that many functions now exercised by town officials should be assumed by county management...in the final analysis...the average taxpayer does not know why or where his tax money is being spent." In 1932, he cited "great waste and duplication" and "thoroughly unbusinesslike practices." But even then, with the Great Depression undermining local governments' tax base, very little happened.
In 1926, Governor Alfred E. Smith, who had reorganized and consolidated state government, called New York's complicated system of local government "costly, wasteful and obsolete...we have too many political divisions, too many officials, too little efficiency." The pattern of counties, cities, and towns had changed little since the beginning of the state. Over the years, special districts for sewers, water, etc., "were created without any understanding of the results that would follow because they overlap one on the other and set up within one township all sorts of overlapping special governments and special tax districts."
Two years later, Smith said the sprawling system of local governments represented "the old-fashioned, foolish way of doing things...inefficiency...we are still in the Middle Ages of government."
Among Smith's proposals: abolish the five counties in New York City; elevate densely populated Nassau County to the status of a city; merge Dutchess and Putnam counties, Rensselaer and Columbia counties, and Warren, Washington, and Saratoga counties into three large counties.
Smith made a strong case: consolidation would save taxpayer money, improve services, make government more responsive, and streamline management of state aid for highways, welfare, and other services.
But Smith's proposals produced very little public interest and support. The Legislature declined to take any action.
There may be more action under Cuomo's new approach. But history does not offer much cause for optimism.
These three examples suggest that looking back into history can often help inform current policy discussions. Often, there are reverberations of past policy proposals in innovative new ones.
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Dr. Bruce W. Dearstyne's latest book is The Spirit of New York: Defining Events in the Empire State's History, published in 2015 by SUNY Press.
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