NYCLU Cheers Introduction of Assembly Bill to Protect East Ramapo Students

ALBANY, NY – Following the introduction of landmark legislation that would give the State authority to intervene to protect the education rights of students in the East Ramapo Central School District (ERCSD), the New York Civil Liberties Union issued the following statement from Executive Director Donna Lieberman:

“This legislation offers a critical safeguard to protect the health, safety, and academic futures of East Ramapo students. By establishing a fiscal control board over the school district, this bill would provide critical funding and long-overdue state oversight to address rampant lead contamination and decrepit facilities, rein in astronomical transportation costs, and invest in critical and long overdue academic supports — transforming the lives of thousands of students and their families.

“Students in East Ramapo urgently need reform. Whether it’s unsafe drinking water, crumbling buildings, cuts to vital core academic or extracurricular programming, or a devastating lack of bilingual educators, the district school board has forced students to endure decades of educational neglect, underfunding, and worsening schools.  

“This is a crisis of the school board’s own making and the school board has demonstrated time and time again that it has no interest in fixing things. The Senate must follow the Assembly’s lead and introduce the same legislation immediately. The students of East Ramapo cannot wait another day for the state to stop enabling the gross educational neglect in East Ramapo. It’s time for the Senate to join the Assembly and finally end 21st Century Jim Crow education in Rockland County.”