http://www.buffalonews.com Latest stories from The Buffalo News en-us Wed, 22 May 2013 12:04:39 -0400 Wed, 22 May 2013 12:04:39 -0400 http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130521/OPINION/130529826/1117
On Tuesday, communities across New York voted on their school district budgets. And in budget after budget, these communities were forced to choose between fewer teachers and higher taxes.

For many schools, it does not have to be this way.

Right now, school districts across upstate New York and Long Island could save 20 percent of their transportation costs by simply switching from district-run transportation operations to cost-effective private school bus operators. This would save state education funds, take the pressure off local taxpayers and keep more teachers on the job.

To make this switch worthwhile for school districts, the New York School Bus Contractors Association is supporting legislation sponsored by State Sen. John Flanagan, R-Suffolk County, that would allow schools to keep unspent state transportation dollars saved by making the switch, allowing these schools to use the savings for in-classroom purposes for up to five years. The local districts keep the funds, while the state is able to freeze transportation aid to that district over the same time period. It’s a win for the state, the taxpayers and the schools.

How do we know schools would save so much? Because many districts are already seeing the savings. About half of New York’s public school districts currently use private contractors, including the Big Five districts of Albany, Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse and Yonkers. Across the state, the use of contractors is already saving a combined $200 million in transportation costs each year. The Manhasset School District on Long Island, for example, is saving more than $1 million a year in school transportation costs thanks to private school bus operators.

Yet many schools in New York State continue to opt for district-run transportation operations, at greater costs to taxpayers. This is happening primarily in the heavily taxed suburban districts across upstate and on Long Island. These are the very districts where the savings from switching to private contractors would be the greatest. In total, it is estimated districts could save a combined $100 million more per year in transportation costs.

The proposal by the New York School Bus Contractors Association offers a real solution that will help cash-strapped school districts reduce transportation costs while maintaining the highest levels of safety for students. In the long run, this legislative solution will save the state tens of millions a year on transportation costs, if not more.

Most importantly, this legislative change will mean fewer communities having to make tough decisions with their school budget votes each May. That translates to more teachers, smaller classes and lower property taxes. And that’s an easy vote for everyone.



Phil Vallone is president of the New York School Bus Contractors Association. ]]> Tue, 21 May 2013 23:54:12 -0400 http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130520/OPINION/130529904/1117
Most voters agree that big corporations and the wealthy should start paying their fair share in taxes. But of course big corporations and the wealthy don’t want to do that. They want to pay less, and they are used to getting their way. So what do you do?

Some people in Washington think the answer is a “grand bargain,” in which Republicans agree to stop protecting millionaires from having to pay a single penny more in taxes. In return, Democrats agree to cut Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare benefits.

That doesn’t sound like a bargain to me. It sounds more like working people getting ripped off.

Let’s not forget how we got here. The richest Americans have been getting richer for decades, while the wages of working people have barely kept up with inflation. Then tax cuts for Wall Street and the wealthy threw the economy even more out of balance. Now economic inequality is the highest it has been since the Great Depression.

Even worse, some of the tax breaks are doing real harm to our economy. Right now, corporations can lower their tax bill by moving factories to lower-tax countries.

Eliminating the tax subsidy for offshoring would raise $583 billion over 10 years. That’s not chump change. That’s money that could be used to invest in education and infrastructure, put people back to work and lay the groundwork for long-term economic prosperity.

Right now, this idea is not taken seriously in Washington because Wall Street doesn’t like it. But the American people are overwhelmingly in favor. Surely that should count for something.

Asking Wall Street and the wealthy to pay their fair share is not only the fair thing to do, it is also necessary to fix the economy. It would reduce inequality, which has been acting as a drag on economic growth. Reinvesting these revenues the right way could also put more buying power in the hands of the middle class, which was once the secret of America’s economic success.

The grand bargain takes us in the opposite direction. Cutting Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare benefits would increase inequality and undermine consumer buying power.

Some people tell us we don’t need to worry about any grand bargain. They say that Republicans’ refusal to tax millionaires and big corporations means there will never be a grand bargain that cuts benefits.

But that means big corporations and the wealthy will never have to pay their fair share of taxes. Or it means our only hope of getting them to pay their fair share is to cut benefits eventually.

Let’s face it: the grand bargain is a dead end. If we want to rebuild our economy, raise wages, put America back to work and rebuild the middle class, we need to set a different course – sooner rather than later.



Richard Trumka is president of the AFL-CIO. ]]> Mon, 20 May 2013 23:17:52 -0400 http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130519/OPINION/130519008/1117
The Buffalo News editorialized on May 8 that “state taxpayers should not directly subsidize religious schools.” I agree 1,000 percent. The main reason I support the Education Investment Tax Credit bill is because it helps all children and teachers, and does so without directly subsidizing religious schools.

In fact, the only type of school the tax credit would directly help would be public schools – by giving people and businesses who donate to them a dollar-for-dollar reduction on their state taxes.

As a member of the Buffalo School District’s Foundation Board, I like that. It gives us a major selling point as we approach potential donors to our city schools. Right now, donors receive only a tax deduction – which means they can reduce their state tax burden by some fraction of a dollar. By enhancing this to a tax credit (up to a percentage of tax liability), we can generate much higher charitable funding for our public schools for a wide variety of purposes.

This bill also would provide tax credits for donations to nonprofit organizations that support our public schools, which would include the Say Yes program operating right here in Buffalo.

To directly benefit teachers, this bill would, for the first time, give them a dollar-for-dollar credit on their state taxes when they spend their own money for their classrooms.

Another beneficiary would be families wanting to send their children to parochial or private schools. Here’s how it would work: First, an individual or business contributes to a non-profit scholarship fund, such as the BISON Fund.

That nonprofit fund then provides a scholarship from its private donations to a student to attend a private or religious school, or a non-resident public school.

Importantly, the tax credit is not allowed if a donor gives money directly to a private or religious school. So the legislation specifically excludes direct subsidies to these schools, and is consistent with the doctrine of church-state separation. In fact, the U.S. Supreme Court has upheld this kind of program as constitutional.

If our bill created any kind of state voucher program – back door or otherwise – then it wouldn’t have the strong, bipartisan support of virtually every Buffalo area state legislator, including Assembly members Crystal Peoples-Stokes and Robin Schimminger and Sens. Timothy Kennedy and George Maziarz.

The state gives tax credits as incentives to many purposes – businesses that relocate; to attract high-profile TV and movie studios to shoot in New York; and even to NBC so it can bring “The Tonight Show” back to New York City. I like adding teachers and schoolchildren to that list.



William J. Mariani, Ed.D., is the vice president of administration and external relations at D’Youville College, and past president of Erie Community College. ]]> Sun, 19 May 2013 08:04:53 -0400 http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130517/OPINION/130519095/1117
The end of the 2012-13 academic year is a perfect time for American education to take a long look in the mirror. What it will see, from stem to stern, is a system greatly in need of re-engineering, despite the much-heralded Common Core learning standards.

As anyone who visits www.core-standards.org can attest, the standards themselves are general and flexible. Thanks to No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top, however, standardized testing has become the core focus, with teacher and administrator evaluations hinging upon student performance. When livelihoods are at stake, is it at all surprising that suspicions of cheating or outright scandals have arisen in Georgia, Texas, the District of Columbia and elsewhere? With so many state education officials leaving to work for or start standardized testing companies, is it any wonder so much public money is spent on test purchase and scoring?

What happens when scores aren’t high enough? In New York, with shifting Regents passing scores, we have seen the backpedaling Alfie Kohn describes in his 2000 book, “The Case Against Standardized Testing.” Other consequences include more calls for charter schools, dysfunctional school boards drawn into politics and demagoguery, endless reshuffling of personnel and doubling down in obviously foolish ways, like requiring that foreign-born students new to English be on grade level in reading in a year.

As if test-prep, social work, and de facto parenting are not enough, some people now call for educators to be armed so they can add “security guard” to their resumes.

Nor is higher education immune. Colleges are on the verge of pricing themselves out of existence. With student debt that follows to the grave and many graduates underemployed, how can anyone justify $200,000 for a bachelor’s degree? With 60 percent to 70 percent of courses taught by well-educated but poorly paid adjuncts or non-tenure track faculty (while some administrative salaries float in middle six-figures), colleges that embrace the business model of getting the most for the least are seriously undermining their own product.

If the thesis of the new book “Surfaces and Essences: Analogy as the Fuel and Fire of Thinking” by Douglas Hofstadter and Emmanuel Sander is correct, thinking (and therefore learning) depends upon building a complex web of associations, pictures and metaphors. Any well-educated person can point to mentors who shaped his or her critical thinking. How can true mentors be found among assembly line test-preppers or part-timers teaching eight courses per semester at five colleges, just to make ends meet?

Is this any way for a nation determined to remain on top to run an educational system?



Gary Earl Ross is a professor at the University at Buffalo Educational Opportunity Center. ]]> Fri, 17 May 2013 23:08:11 -0400 http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130516/OPINION/130519270/1117
When Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and the Legislature passed teacher evaluation reforms last year, and then followed up with specific mandates and guidelines this year, they did so because they wanted to ensure that every classroom has the best possible teacher.

Earlier this year, nearly every school district across the state signed a teacher evaluation agreement with its local union in time to meet the governor’s directive and ensure that it would receive increases in state aid. But now it appears that some of those districts, including Buffalo, tried to circumvent the state mandate by secretly promising not to use the new evaluations in employment decisions.

These “side deals,” meant to strip the new systems of accountability, are deeply troubling. They not only subvert the hard work of the governor and the Legislature, they dash any hope of replacing ineffective teachers with great ones who will improve our schools. That means already struggling school systems like Buffalo’s only stand to get worse.

This form of sabotage is unconscionable. It’s shameful. It’s embarrassing. And worst of all, it will hurt our kids.

Inside our schools, there is no greater indicator of a child’s future success than the quality of his or her teacher – not class size, facilities or curriculum. Boosting teacher quality will increase students’ likelihood of attending college and improve their future earning potential. Most important, it is our best chance to ensure that all kids – regardless of family income – graduate with the skills they need to succeed in life.

Meaningful evaluations are a critical first step toward improving teacher quality. Until now, most New York teachers have been rewarded based on seniority or quantity of graduate education, neither of which has been shown to drive student achievement. Effective and ineffective teachers have left our schools at the same rate because there is nothing to differentiate between them. Now we have the opportunity to foster a culture of excellence so our children have the best we can provide.

Evaluation systems must have the teeth to identify and reward outstanding and exemplary teachers, provide those who are struggling with the resources necessary to improve, and, yes, remove the least-effective ones. That is exactly what the governor and Legislature intended.

Cuomo and State Education Commissioner John B. King Jr. deserve high marks for standing up for our kids and successfully pressuring Buffalo School Superintendent Pamela C. Brown to void this highly questionable, secret side deal with the teachers union. But the matter might not be settled. The teachers union has said it “will take whatever action is necessary to enforce that agreement.”  The governor, commissioner and superintendent all need to stand firm. Our children deserve nothing less.



Glen Weiner is interim executive director of StudentsFirstNY. ]]> Thu, 16 May 2013 23:09:39 -0400 http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130516/OPINION/130519387/1117
Professor Robert Howarth has done the numbers. His plan to have New York State off fossil fuels and powered totally by renewable ones is published in the peer-reviewed journal Energy Policy. Read it at www.stanford.edu/group/efmh/jacobson/Articles/I/NewYork WWSEnPolicy.pdf.

He shows that by 2030, New York State could supply itself with energy entirely from wind, water and sun. He calls for the total replacement of fossil and nuclear energy with electricity from these renewables.

Conversion to all-electric would improve the efficiency of power-consuming devices by 37 percent. In his plan, energy sources would be 50 percent onshore and offshore windmills and 38 percent concentrated and dispersed solar panels, with the rest a mix of wave devices, tidal turbines, hydroelectric and geothermal plants.

He deals with the problem of variability of wind and sun by building over-capacity and storing the excess energy. It would be stored both where it is produced and where it is used, in batteries, thermal media, pumped water, compressed air, fly wheels, in the batteries of our new fleet of all electric vehicles and in the form of hydrogen for burning where high temperatures are needed.

Howarth’s peer-reviewed numbers tell us that the illness and deaths caused by the burning of fossil fuels costs New York, annually, $33 billion. Eliminating the cost of these illnesses alone would pay for this massive, job-producing conversion to clean electric power. A good portion of those dollars creates jobs for the 4.5 million workers who would build the new infrastructure, and 58,000 of those workers would stay on in their new jobs to run the system.

Sierra Club’s “Turn Don’t Burn” campaign brought Howarth to Buffalo recently to publicize his calculations and lead the way out of our fossil-driven Hades. We must act now. If we lose the reflectivity of the arctic ice through global warming, we will pass the tipping point from which the Earth may never return.

In the 1890s, during the first big oil boom, a circuit-riding preacher made the rounds of the oil fields preaching fire and brimstone in condemnation of drilling for oil. He proclaimed, “The Lord stored oil in the earth to fuel the fires of hell. To remove it is sinful and the world will feel his wrath.”

Today that preacher would feel vindicated to see the plague that oil drilling and fossil fuel burning has wrought: wildly erratic weather, melting polar ice caps, rising sea levels, New Orleans flooded and much of New York City devastated. The air pollution that it produces annually makes countless thousands of New Yorkers ill and kills 3,200 of us.

Call the governor and tell him we want to be totally on wind, water and sun power by 2030.



Larry Beahan is conservation chairman of the Sierra Club Niagara Group. ]]> Wed, 15 May 2013 23:15:45 -0400 http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130514/OPINION/130519470/1117
The New York State Freedom of Information Law allows citizens to obtain copies of government records.

In 2009, after not receiving adequate responses to several FOIL requests, the editor of The Buffalo News wrote a column directed to Mayor Brown stating:

“The law is clear. When we request city records, you must provide them, completely and in a timely manner.

“But you aren’t exactly following the law at the moment.

“You’re stonewalling.

“So, with all due respect, Mayor, cut it out.”

It is astonishing that such a column had to be written. In addition to giving The Buffalo News a hard time about providing public documents, the Brown administration in 2010 forced the Common Council to submit FOIL requests to obtain information about the city’s Block Grant budget.

In November 2011, Buffalo’s former director of strategic planning, Timothy Wanamaker, pleaded guilty to using a city credit card for personal expenses totaling $30,000. Over a period of 15 months, The Buffalo News filed several FOIL requests with the Buffalo Economic Renaissance Corp. requesting Wanamaker’s travel and expense account records.

The News never received the requested records. If Brown is not going to operate city government transparently, then the Common Council needs to implement the following policy changes:

• Strengthen the oversight of FOIL responsiveness. Adopt legislation to require monthly reporting to the Common Council regarding the status of all FOIL requests, as well as annual reporting to the public.

• Provide training. Records access officers should receive annual training on FOIL compliance, which is available at no cost through the New York State Committee on Open Government.

• Ensure greater accountability. Conduct semi-annual reviews of each department/agency’s FOIL compliance.

• Adopt an open government policy. Mandate that all city agencies must proactively publish commonly requested records online.

• Engage concerned citizens. Form a citizens advisory board dedicated to making city government more open.

In addition to policy changes by the Common Council, the city comptroller could conduct an audit of how FOIL requests are being handled. Under the City Charter, the comptroller has the authority to conduct not only financial audits, but performance audits to determine whether laws are being complied with and intended results are being achieved.

Non-compliance with a law whose purpose is to provide citizens information should not be tolerated. The Common Council and city comptroller should act.



Paul Wolf is the president and founder of the Center For Reinventing Government. ]]> Tue, 14 May 2013 23:23:14 -0400 http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130514/OPINION/130519525/1117
Thanks to an explosion in demand for Greek-style yogurt, upstate New York is experiencing a 21st century boom in dairy processing. Unfortunately, the dairy farmers who supply milk to those yogurt plants are still operating – struggling might be a better word – under a 20th century dairy program.

That program is supposed to help us through the rough spots in a business that has boom and bust cycles. But in recent years, it hasn’t helped us cope with swings in both milk prices and feed costs. As a result, New York farmers lost millions of dollars in 2009, and again last year.

So, while we appreciate the yogurt makers locating their plants in New York, we’re competing in a global marketplace with an antiquated federal dairy policy.

That could change this week, when both the House and Senate agriculture committees try once again to pass a new farm bill.

The committees will have under consideration an updated dairy program – four years in the making – that is designed to help us cope better with the conditions we face today. That means protecting against not just periods of low milk prices, but soaring feed costs as well. Together, these roller-coaster conditions have played havoc recently with our operating margins, the crucial gap between what we receive for milk and what it costs us to produce it.

The new program in Congress, called the Dairy Security Act, is based on a model drawn up by dairy farmers for dairy farmers. It does away with price supports and direct payments, substituting a voluntary program focused not on price, but on allowing us to better maintain our profit margins. The DSA is a dairy program for the 21st century. It’s a safety net for when times are hard. It doesn’t kick in at all in good years.

More importantly, it’s voluntary. However, those farmers who sign up must agree to trim the amount of milk they produce when supply and demand get out of alignment. Putting the brakes on milk production when conditions deteriorate helps keep the costs of the insurance program down, which means farmers bear more responsibility for helping themselves.

An alternative approach is likely to surface in the committee debates, and at first blush it might sound better than the program I described. It’s not. Defeated once already last year, it offers farmers help maintaining their margins, but with no means to limit payouts if milk prices collapse. That’s totally irresponsible and deserves to be rejected.

Milk remains by far the dominant farm product in New York. In 2011, it generated more than $2.7 billion in sales. But those who want to keep producing milk in our state need a federal dairy program that works. The Dairy Security Act is that safety net.



Nathan and Barbara Blesy operate Blesy Farms in Springville. ]]> Tue, 14 May 2013 11:10:48 -0400 http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130513/OPINION/130519612/1117
Nurse practitioners are expert health professionals who are nationally licensed and credentialed to provide autonomous primary care services.

However, 33 states, including New York, impose arbitrary restrictions on their authority.

Specifically, New York requires that nurse practitioners have collaborative agreements with physicians to diagnose, treat and prescribe medications or tests – an unnecessary bureaucratic hurdle that delays care. This problem will only get worse when millions of patients join the rolls of the insured as part of national health care reform.

To meet the needs of patients in Buffalo and across New York, we must ease restrictions on nurse practitioners, closing the gap between what they are educated and trained to do, and legally permitted to do. Already, 52 out of New York’s 62 counties are federally designated “Healthcare Provider Shortage Areas.” It is estimated that the state needs an additional 12,000 primary care providers to meet current needs. New York has more than 16,000 nurse practitioners licensed and ready to help.

Nurse practitioners undergo rigorous master’s, often doctoral, education and clinical training that equips them to provide high-quality, safe, autonomous care. Their unique preparation is competency-based; students progress only when they have demonstrated mastery of a subject. Their education also focuses on one student-chosen specialty (e.g., pediatrics) from “day one.” This is in direct contrast to medical schools, where a student studying to be a pediatrician would earn credit for time spent learning specialties outside pediatrics.

Nurse practitioners are also more likely to stay in primary care. Thus, nurse practitioners frequently serve as the sole primary care providers in rural communities, and among medically underserved and uninsured populations.

Most crucially, 40 years of study has shown the outcomes of nurse practitioner patients are equal to and often better than those of physicians. Patients also frequently report that they prefer nurse practitioners because of the added health education and counseling they offer. In fact, outcomes research has recently shifted from using physicians as the “gold standard,” citing nurse practitioner excellence in primary care and other specialties.

National organizations have increasingly recommended that states grant nurse practitioners full practice authority. These groups have grown to include the National Council of State Boards of Nursing, the Institute of Medicine and, most recently, the National Governors Association.

It is time for New York State to follow suit and embrace this common sense, zero-cost solution. It is in the best interest of patients, which is far more important than any turf war between providers.



Joy Elwell is Region 2 director for the American Association of Nurse Practitioners. ]]> Mon, 13 May 2013 22:33:41 -0400 http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130510/OPINION/130519842/1117
The News article “Toxic legacy’s time bomb” painted a compelling picture of the history of pollution in Western New York, but failed to account for the significant progress made toward reversing the trend. The article failed to note that many of the sites have been cleaned up under the Department of Environmental Conservation’s Superfund, Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, and Brownfield cleanup programs.

The state and federal governments and private industry have spent billions of dollars in cleanup efforts, and many of these cleanups have brought much-needed redevelopment to this area.

The state Superfund program was created in 1979 to ensure that inactive hazardous waste disposal sites are cleaned up. Of the 408 Superfund sites in Erie, Niagara and Cattaraugus counties, 93 percent have been investigated, remediated, closed or found not to pose a significant threat to human health or the environment. Just 40 sites are currently listed in Class 2, sites that pose a significant threat. Of these, 12 have been remediated and will soon be reclassified. There are many Superfund success stories, such as Donner Hanna Coke, now a manufacturing facility, and Spaulding Composites, now a shovel-ready business park.

In addition, the Brownfield Cleanup Program provides incentives to developers to “recycle” former industrial and commercial property instead of developing greenfields. In fact, much of the recent development in Western New York has been due, in part, to the Brownfields program. Successful brownfield sites include the Health Now building, the former Donovan Building and the HARBORcenter project in Buffalo; Steel Winds windmills in Lackawanna; Remington Rand Apartments in North Tonawanda; and the new Greenpac paper mill and Globe Metallurgical facility in Niagara Falls.

The DEC has a dedicated staff of professionals in Western New York and across the state who implement sophisticated programs to track and monitor remediation sites long-term. This includes following federal and state guidelines that assess the possible routes of exposure to the public and the environment by sampling various media such as air, groundwater and soils and comparing the data to determine if a public health threat exists. If it does, the DEC works closely with the state Department of Health to immediately address the threat. This work is routinely performed before long-term remediation is conducted. Once the cleanup is completed, DEC staff monitors the site through follow-up actions such as inspections and sampling.

We are here in Western New York actively working on remediation sites and are committed to a continuing presence to ensure the health, safety and environmental protection of the community.



Joe Martens is commissioner of the state Department of Environmental Conservation. ]]> Fri, 10 May 2013 23:18:13 -0400 http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130509/OPINION/130509201/1117
The State Education Department’s Charter School Office seems to be playing a game of “Gotcha!” with local charter schools. It expects charter schools to perform at a certain level, but it has not defined that level or how schools should get there. Charter schools are trying to hit a moving target. When they miss the moving target, the Education Department closes them. The victims are Buffalo’s schoolchildren.

Citing a history of poor performance, the department and the Board of Regents decided to close Community Charter School, effective this June. A May 7 Another Voice supporting the decision told only a part of Community’s story. For the past year, Community has been operating under a turnaround plan designed by education experts. The practice of utilizing turnaround plans in low-performing schools is a proven solution for struggling schools.

The turnaround began in August 2012. Since then, the school has made remarkable progress. The former board was replaced with nine new members. A new administrative team was hired and is positively impacting instructional practices. The staff is focused on meeting challenges presented by children with histories of school struggles.

The board recognized it needed outside help with this process, and it hired consultants and experts to help implement the plan. As a result, students are overcoming the mystery of state testing. Community now uses a data‑driven model of instruction that reveals areas in need of remediation, with students reaping the benefits.

In its review, the Education Department failed to acknowledge the turnaround plan. When it visited the school, it indicated it would not provide Community with any technical assistance to help it meet the criteria for charter school success. But, when it came time for renewal, the department suddenly had a lot to say about how Community failed to meet this elusive target.

The opinions of local officials, consultants and business leaders and the recent press surrounding the Board of Education elections emphasize the difficulties the Buffalo Public School District is having turning around its underperforming schools. Why do state officials want to return Community’s children to a district still working on a “how to” turnaround model when Community already has a successful plan in place?

Community is a safe school where attendance is exemplary and parent satisfaction is high. The board and staff are serious about making Community a school of excellence and have made measurable progress this year. More importantly, the Education Department needs to issue transparent regulations about charter school performance expectations. It should not be able to simply say, “Gotcha! You’re closed.”



Frank Herstek, Ed.D, is an independent consultant on school reform. He has worked with Community Charter School. ]]> Thu, 9 May 2013 22:40:59 -0400 http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130508/OPINION/130509284/1117
If it hasn’t happened in your home already, expect the topic of gambling in this state to become a household topic across many New York homes very shortly. It’s no secret that Albany is interested in a constitutional amendment that would legalize casino expansion throughout the state. If this passes our Legislature, the future of casinos in New York comes down to you, me and every other New York voter.

There are those who believe this is what the state needs to balance budgets and continue an influx of tourism. Likewise, others are condemning its presence and questioning the moral compass associated with casino expansion.

But there is a third element to this discussion that is unfortunately overlooked: Problem gambling. Think that this is a non-issue? Think again; approximately 600,000 adults in New York (and roughly 80,000-plus in Western New York) experience problem gambling and may be in need of treatment services. Additionally, a report from the United Kingdom suggests that problem gamblers and alcoholics share an eerily similar genetic makeup. Even with obvious similarities, it’s fascinating how society handles each issue differently.

Living with a problem gambler is an equally high-risk scenario. Those who habitually engage in games, slots and more leave their dependents and counterparts behind. When a child can rely only on a problem gambler (or alcoholic) for sustenance, it’s easy to see how supermarket visits lessen and mortgage payments disappear.

Our organization’s focus is not on whether casinos should expand; we are proud of our neutral stance on gambling. Expansion is up to our political leaders and our voters. The conversation we like to have, the conversation our state needs to have, is on how many New Yorkers are experiencing problem gambling today and cannot get rehabilitation services where they live, despite the devastating effects on their families, co-workers and even their communities. Problem gambling is the third and vital element to our state’s gambling conversations.

I can’t definitively say whether this bill will pass both our State Legislature and popular vote in November. One can only speculate on what will happen between now and voting day. But, what can (and should) be implemented regardless of casino expansion are substantial, readily accessible services that give problem gamblers and their families the help they need. Problem gambling education, awareness, prevention, treatment and recovery services are needed statewide.

So, whether or not you think casinos are a step in the right or wrong direction for New York’s future, consider the vital third element, problem gambling, and the need for services to help those suffering.



Jim Maney is executive director of the New York Council on Problem Gambling. ]]> Wed, 8 May 2013 23:23:54 -0400 http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130507/OPINION/130509375/1117
The National Federation for Just Communities of Western New York (NFJC) is a human relations organization dedicated to overcoming racism, bias and discrimination by building understanding, respect and trust in our community. Founded as a chapter of the National Conference of Christians and Jews, the NFJC has worked for more than 60 years to bring people together through education, advocacy and outreach to help them resolve their differences peacefully and with respect.

American society has become increasingly polarized over the last decade. Political parties and action groups seem less interested in working together for the common good than adopting and projecting an “us versus them” mentality. Rhetoric in debate and in protests has become more and more negative, and the NFJC is concerned with the declining levels of civil discourse within our nation and our community.

There are many important issues that must be debated in our country, from health care to gun control, but these issues, and the arguments of the respective sides, are being obscured by the inflammatory imagery and language being used. At recent rallies related to New York State’s SAFE Act, there were placards depicting Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo as Adolf Hitler, as there were of President Obama as Hitler during the health care debate, and as there were of President George W. Bush during the Iraq War.

These images are shocking and offensive, regardless of whom they depict, and they have no place in the public square. Not only, obviously, are they wildly inaccurate and insulting, they serve only to enrage and provoke. Such inappropriate displays do not lead to healthy debate, much less understanding and resolution on issues that speak directly to who we are, who we want to be and what kind of a world we are leaving to our children. Rather, they diminish both the meaning of the discussion and the stature of the debaters, shifting focus away from their positions to simply who can manufacture the more insulting signage.

The NFJC, therefore, calls on civic and political leaders, media figures and protesters to tone down their language and eliminate the use of derogatory imagery that ultimately sours, not enriches, debate. All sides must re-examine both what it is they are trying to say and how best to make their case.

Debate and dialogue are necessary in American politics, which is the main reason freedom of speech is enshrined in our Constitution. However, with that freedom comes responsibility – to argue passionately, to listen attentively and to work diligently to improve a world that so desperately needs it.



Lana D. Benatovich is president of the National Federation for Just Communities of Western New York. Gary D. Quenneville is the board’s co-chairman. ]]> Tue, 7 May 2013 23:44:45 -0400 http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130507/OPINION/130509435/1117
The Board of Regents’ recent decisions to close Community Charter School and propose Enterprise Charter School receive one more year to get it right give cause for both encouragement and concern.

We’re encouraged by Albany’s drive to raise standards for all schools and hold charters accountable for academics. Seeing that Community was one of Buffalo’s worst-performing public schools – charter or district – the Regents made the painful but correct decision to close it.

As was the case with last year’s charter renewals, the regents are showing they care more about academic results than regulatory compliance.

Yet they undermine their cause with unclear renewal ground rules and contradictory feedback. Worse, they open the door to litigation from schools they want to close. That’s what Pinnacle Charter School did last year and it’s what Community is considering now.

Yes, charters must have access to the courts, but doing it with almost complete disregard for academic performance is a road to no good. We drift into an educational Bermuda Triangle when charters try to litigate, versus educate, their way toward renewal.

High-performing charters should realize their stake in this fight. The longer failing schools are allowed to operate, the easier it is for our influential political opponents to push policies making it harder for all charters to thrive.

Ironically, the regents’ decision to push the Enterprise renewal back to the Buffalo Board of Education may offer a less litigious way to bridge the transition to tougher performance standards.

Both the Buffalo board and Enterprise should consider copying the approach used with the State University and UFT Charter School in Brooklyn. As part of a multi-year renewal, SUNY told the school precisely how many academic measures it had to meet in order to apply for its next contract. If the school falls short, it automatically closes.

This is fairer to both parties. From the start, the school knows what it must do. Should the Buffalo Board of Education make closure the default result for failure, it simplifies its task three years from now, needing only to determine whether extraordinary circumstances justify a reprieve. If done right, Enterprise and the board could actually improve the regents’ current process.

What we can’t do is continue to kick the can on academic quality. A landmark study issued in January from Stanford’s Center for Research on Education Outcomes found that bad charter schools generally stay bad.

Academically failing schools shouldn’t beat the rap on a technicality. Otherwise, we risk squandering the great potential charters have to transform not only the lives of children in their care but also provide models for how all public education can improve.



Bill Phillips is president of the Northeast Charter School Network. ]]> Tue, 7 May 2013 07:48:12 -0400 http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130506/OPINION/130509517/1117
Americans’ opinions are passionate and divided regarding detainee treatment in our fight against terrorism. One factor in that heated debate is that much of what we need to know has been kept secret. The secrecy is justified on national security grounds, but that rationale is easily used to protect government agencies from embarrassment and criticism.

President Obama promised a more transparent government, but has continued to shield government actions and policies from public scrutiny. Congress has been equally hostile to unearthing the history of our treatment of detainees, derailing even the modest proposal by Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., for a South African-style truth commission. Efforts by the National Religious Coalition Against Torture and other groups to have Congress establish a public commission of inquiry into what was done in our name have not borne fruit.

Fortunately, the bipartisan, high-level Task Force on Detainee Treatment sponsored by the Constitution Project has just issued a comprehensive, unbiased, highly factual report. Even in the absence of subpoena power or access to classified data, the task force successfully acquired extensive accounts of counter-terrorist activities from public information and interviews.

Its diverse membership includes a Republican who served under President George W. Bush, a former three-star general, a longtime director of the FBI, high-profile professors in law and medical schools and an evangelical religious leader.

The report found that torture was practiced on many occasions, and that it was directly authorized by high officials, including Bush. Despite ratifying the Convention Against Torture, our government has not held accountable any but the very lowest-level people who abused detainees.

The report also shows that non-coercive methods of interrogation were actually more effective. There are, to be sure, statements by past leaders that torture was indispensable, but they rely on secret data, and the people offering these assessments have a built-in bias.

The report acknowledges that any country under stress is likely to behave below its usual standard, but argues that we should nonetheless strive to ensure that our country lives up to its ideals.

In December, the Senate Intelligence Committee finished analyzing 6 million pages of documents on the CIA’s use of torture after 9/11. As a Christian, specifically an Episcopalian, I stand with the more than 300 diverse faith-based organizations which, as members of the National Religious Campaign Against Torture, are calling on the committee to make its report public.

As a participant in my church’s liturgy, I regularly vow to “respect the dignity of every human being.” I hope for my country to do the same.



Stephen Hart of Buffalo is convener of the Western New York chapter of the Episcopal Peace Fellowship. ]]> Mon, 6 May 2013 09:28:33 -0400 http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130506/OPINION/130509536/1117
Medicine is getting cheaper. That may come as a surprise amid handwringing about the spiraling cost of health care, but two new studies show that the amount of money Americans spend on prescription drugs went down in 2012 for the first time in decades.

The reason for this welcome development is an influx of generic medications. The research behind a new drug is protected for a fixed number of years, after which competing firms can begin manufacturing generic forms. In 2012, 84 percent of all prescriptions were dispensed as generics, the highest rate in history. It’s a boon for consumers.

These new studies also found the prices of specialty medicines are rising. These new drugs involve cutting-edge technologies and can, therefore, be expensive. Fearful of what the newest medicines may cost, some politicians have proposed measures aimed at forcing these prices down.

We shouldn’t fear the price tag of these new medicines. Expensive medicine may be a bitter pill, but these advanced therapies offer hope to millions of patients, keeping them healthier for longer.

We’re living in a golden age of drug development. New treatments for everything from cancer to rare genetic diseases are entering the market, many of which are cutting-edge biologic medicines derived from living cells.

Biologics offer amazing promise. Consider their potential impact on cancer. Conventional cancer treatments often generate significant collateral damage to the patient. In contrast, the biologic approach injects a genetically engineered protein designed to knock out a tumor’s ability to produce new blood vessels, thereby cutting off its capacity to grow.

But the most specialized and complex drugs can come at an astronomical price. According to an exclusive Forbes’ survey of the most expensive medications, four biopharmaceuticals approved in 2012 cost more than $200,000 per year, per patient.

That’s because it costs, on average, $1.2 billion to bring a new drug to market – from the time it is a twinkle in a scientist’s eye, through a decade or more of lab research, to clinical trials and finally FDA approval.

The beauty of our system is that it encourages companies to make the massive investments of time and money required to bring a new drug to market. The biopharmaceutical industry’s legacy of risk-taking research has led to a world in which eight of every 10 medicines dispensed is generic.

Our children and grandchildren will grow up to marvel at the biologic revolution, just as an earlier generation marveled at the space race. But that can only happen if we accept the reality that innovation comes at a high price.



Peter J. Pitts, a former FDA associate commissioner, is president of the Center for Medicine in the Public Interest. ]]> Mon, 6 May 2013 06:30:10 -0400 http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130503/OPINION/130509655/1117
When the five living presidents met last week to dedicate the George W. Bush Presidential Library, President Bill Clinton gave us pause to think about how leaders need to think and act.

“A couple of times a year in his second term George [Bush] would call me just to talk politics,” said Clinton.

Do you think they argued? We don’t know, but since they come from pretty different political philosophies, it’s likely they verbally “crossed swords” on those calls a few times. But it’s evident that they weren’t disagreeable.

Certainly, George W. could have called his father, the other President Bush. He also could have called on any number of his own advisers to get an expert opinion.

So why did Bush repeatedly call Clinton? I think Bush and Clinton found a way to disagree without being disagreeable, and Bush recognized that hashing his thoughts and arguments out with Clinton would sharpen his own ideas.

Bush respected Clinton enough to call, and Clinton respected Bush enough not only to take the call, but fondly remember it. I think that respect is born out of both presidents recognizing they had far more in common than their disagreements.

There’s much to be learned from this anecdote about dialogue, disagreement and respect. The four key elements are character, common vision, communication and caring – the Four C’s, or the Four Stars of conflict resolution.

Our grand experiment of America can’t last long in gridlock. We’re going to have to get to a point where you can have an opinion, and I can have an opinion, and we can argue the merits of each viewpoint without being disrespectful.

It’s long been my hope that we could mentor our young people in this skill of resolving conflicts through civil discourse, rather than civil discord. To disagree respectfully, to listen actively and to understand both sides of issues we all face as a nation.

I’ve tried to do this with the annual Four Star Leadership Program. For the last five summers, we have brought 50 of the brightest high school student leaders from around the country to Oklahoma Christian University. The students get briefings from authors and athletes, politicians, military leaders and business leaders. Then they write editorial-style opinions and argue their points in debate competitions. They’re encouraged to have strong opinions, but coached to use the Four C’s to respect opinions of others, because the solution to any problem might be in your opponent’s answer.

Without dialogue there can never be a solution for a problem.

High school students who have shown signs of leadership can apply to Four Star Leadership at http://fourstarleader.com. The deadline is May 15.



Gen. Tommy Franks is retired former head of U.S. Central Command and founder of the Four Star Leadership program. ]]> Fri, 3 May 2013 23:00:12 -0400 http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130502/OPINION/130509796/1117
New York State remains in a fiscal crisis. Recently, Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli suggested that 2013-2014 state budget gimmickry will not necessarily overcome the problem. Property tax caps and public worker layoffs have only reduced, not enhanced, the necessary level of service delivery, infrastructure revitalization and jobs creation.

One way to secure funding for New York State is to collect and keep the stock transfer tax. This tax has been on the books since 1905. Sadly, since 1981, New York has collected billions in stock transfer taxes and then rebated 100 percent of it back to Wall Street. Any time within two years after payment of the tax to Albany, the broker can submit a form and the state immediately credits the money back to the broker. In 2010, this rebate exceeded $16 billion in give-backs to Wall Street.

The stock transfer tax doesn’t negatively affect serious long-term investors. It primarily affects those individual or institutional investors who play the stock market like a casino, making hundreds or tens of thousands of trades daily. The tax is up to 5 cents per share, for a maximum of $350 per transaction. Its impact is mostly on frequent moves of large blocks of stock in which Wall Street speculators commonly engage.

The London Stock Exchange collects a significant stock transfer tax and it continues to flourish. Germany, Switzerland, Hong Kong, Singapore and France also have stock transfer taxes. A 2003 AFL-CIO survey showed that by 63 percent to 24 percent, New Yorkers favored collecting and keeping a stock transfer tax of one or two cents per share.

It cannot be claimed that if New York collected and kept the stock transfer tax, the NYSE, AMEX and NASDAQ would all flee into cyberspace. After all, New York is increasingly effective in collecting sales taxes on purchases made out-of-state over the Internet.

In order to prevent damaging Wall Street speculation, the underlying stock transfer tax rate should be linked to trading volume: the lower the trading volume, the lower the tax. This would diminish the wild volatility that caused many of Wall Street’s and most of Americans’ problems in recent years. While in 2010, during the Great Recession, the stock transfer tax totaled roughly $16 billion, now it may be even greater. Keeping, not rebating, this tax revenue will erase New York’s deficit, restore spending cuts in essential services, restore thousands of workers to their jobs or create new jobs, and generate future revenue surpluses.

While there is talk in Washington of a national financial transactions tax, New York already has one. We can show the way. Readers should press their state legislators to ensure that Albany collects and keeps the stock transfer tax.



Gene Grabiner, Ph.D., is a SUNY distinguished service professor emeritus of social science at Erie Community College. ]]> Thu, 2 May 2013 22:29:15 -0400 http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130501/OPINION/130509887/1117
In the early 20th century, Europe faced a crisis. Its food supply grew slowly while its population grew rapidly; mass starvation loomed. A brilliant German chemist, Fritz Haber, devised a solution to this problem that much later led to the tragic explosion that just devastated a town near Waco, Texas.

In 1908, Haber devised a way to take nitrogen gas from the atmosphere and convert it into limitless amounts of ammonium nitrate, an excellent fertilizer that still sustains us. The food crisis was solved, but others were yet to come.

Haber’s technology was used during World War I to make enormous amounts of explosives that killed millions. At the war’s end, thousands of tons of ammonium nitrate remained and much of it was stored in the German town of Oppau in a 30-meter-high storage silo formed into a solid brick-like mass.

After many small-scale tests, sticks of dynamite were exploded in the ammonium nitrate mass to loosen it. After several successful explosions, another charge was set on Sept. 21, 1921. For reasons unknown to this day, this charge caused the entire mass of ammonium nitrate to detonate.

The explosion killed more than 500 Oppau residents, injured thousands and destroyed the entire town, leaving most of its residents homeless. This disaster demonstrated the unpredictable, explosive instability of ammonium nitrate, a lesson that was soon forgotten.

On April 16, 1947, onlookers gathered in Texas City, Texas, to watch as a ship’s cargo burned and its crew attempted to extinguish the flames. The ship’s cargo, 2,300 tons of ammonium nitrate fertilizer, exploded. The blast leveled much of Texas City, killed an estimated 570, injured 3,500 and left 2,000 Texas City residents homeless. Again, the cause of the explosion remains a mystery.

Still more recently, our failure to adequately control ammonium nitrate allowed it to be acquired in such large quantities that two home-grown terrorists easily obtained enough to bomb the federal building in Oklahoma City, Okla., damaging several hundred other buildings and causing 168 deaths and more than 600 injuries.

Haber’s technology has had disastrous consequences, unimaginable in 1908. Since then ammonium nitrate has been involved in many other unintended explosions and has caused untold numbers of deaths and injuries. The cause of many of these disasters remains in doubt because ammonium nitrate is normally safe and its explosive nature is not completely understood. Still, our government has failed to adequately regulate the manufacture, storage and sale of this chemical.

In the latest Texas disaster, ammonium nitrate was produced and stored in massive quantities close to a town where children were going to school and thousands of people lived. Will we never learn?



Frank J. Dinan, Ph.D., is chemistry professor emeritus at Canisius College. ]]> Wed, 1 May 2013 23:22:27 -0400 http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130430/OPINION/130509983/1117 By Sam Unterricht

As New York’s health care delivery system becomes integrated, state policy-makers must assure that safeguards that have historically existed to protect patients remain in effect.

One such safeguard has been the legal requirement for a nurse practitioner to maintain a written practice agreement and collaborative relationship with a physician. Nurse practitioners are demanding that they now be allowed to practice in an unsupervised manner. While nurse practitioners are valued members of the health care team, the current safeguards exist to protect patients.

There are very significant differences in training between physicians and nurse practitioners. In addition to four years of college and four years of medical school, a physician must complete between three and seven years of residency/fellowship training. By the time the physician begins to practice, he or she has already devoted the required 12,000-14,000 in patient care hours.

A nurse practitioner completes a four-year nursing program and a two-to-four-year training program. When he or she begins to practice, a nurse practitioner has delivered only 500-720 in patient care hours. That difference is significant, both in terms of quality and cost of care. A physician’s additional years of medical education and training are vital to the health care team and optimal patient care, especially in the event of a complication or medical emergency.

If the law is changed, what will change? First, the quality of care that our patients currently benefit from will be adversely affected. Patients don’t really understand what a written practice agreement or practice protocols are, but they have enjoyed the benefits they bring. Their records are reviewed by a physician to assure that the standard of care provided has been met.

Another important facet of this issue involves the cost of care. Some entities support this proposal because they think they will save money. Nurse practitioner salaries are somewhat less than that of a primary care physician. However, studies show that this differential may be offset by increased utilization of tests and referrals by NPs to specialists for consultations due to lack of diagnostic ability.

Rather than establishing additional unconnected silos of care, New York should be pursuing laws that assure greater integration and care coordination, not less. Doctors and nurse practitioners need to work in a coordinated manner to ensure patients get the care they need. And highly trained physicians should, in each and every case, lead the patient care team.



Sam Unterricht, M.D., is president of the Medical Society of the State of New York. ]]> Tue, 30 Apr 2013 23:45:41 -0400