Education would be a top priority in her county government administration, promises Joanie Mahoney, the Republican candidate for Onondaga County executive.
“I want this community to be a real opportunity for our children,” Mahoney said at a recent debate.
She released an education plan recently as part of her “Opportunity Agenda.” It calls for incentives to attract and keep good teachers, more money for academic programs and less for administration, and more training opportunities for students after graduation.
Good schools, she said, make for a better economy. People move into communities with quality school systems and businesses follow, she said. “Education permeates everything in our economy,” Mahoney said.
Education experts say Mahoney’s proposal points out problems, but offers few solutions or specifics.
“It’s all very political,” one expert, George Theoharis, put it. He’s a professor at Syracuse University’s School of Education and a consultant to several local school districts. Said Theoharis, “There’s nobody who is going to disagree with her because she doesn’t say much.”
Mahoney’s plan calls for:
- Incentives to attract and keep good teachers in the city.
Discounted housing, graduate-school scholarships, forgiveness for undergraduate education loans and higher pay would go a long way to easing the disparity in educational quality between city and suburban schools, said Mahoney. She has moved her children from city to county schools partly because of that disparity. “I’m going to do the best that I can for my kids,” she said. “I make no apologies for it.”
Laurie Menkin, vice president of the Syracuse Board of Education who is running for re-election, agrees that the city needs ways to keep good teachers. But Menkin, a Democrat, stopped short of endorsing Mahoney’s proposal. In the past, she said, education has usually been considered a local issue. “The county is rather limited as to what it can do specifically for schools,” Menkin said.
- Less administrative costs in the school system.
The county earmarked nearly $16 million in sales tax for schools last year. Mahoney calls for the money to go directly to academic needs instead of administrative ones. “We cannot afford the duplication of resources and the multiple layers of bureaucracy,” she said at a recent debate. On her Web site, WWW.JOANIE2007.COM/ISSUES , she wrote, “We must work to minimize the cost of administrative functions by coordinating and consolidating non-academic functions.” She did not offer specifics on how to do that.
Menkin, the school board vice president, agreed that tax money is the most important way the county executive can help schools. Instead of emphasizing administrative costs, Menkin called for a bigger share of the sales tax revenue for city schools.
- Opportunities for students after they graduate high school
More students should go to college or get vocational training after high school, Mahoney said at a recent debate at Onondaga Community College. The school gets some of its funding from the county. Mahoney praised the college as important to the county’s economy. “It all goes together,” she said. “If we prepare people to succeed, the amount we spend on social services is reduced. It’s a wise business decision.” Her plan does not offer details on how to increase the number of students pursuing education beyond high school.
Theoharis, the SU professor who consults with county school districts, had slight praise for Mahoney’s plan and a warning for voters. “All of these things aren’t bad ideas,” he said. “But it is often lip service.”
For her part, Mahoney’s “Opportunity Agenda” promises that she “will use her leadership skills and the influence of county government to improve the quality of education.”
(Andrew Restuccia is a senior newspaper and religion and society major)
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