I believe that a rich array of universally available, publicly supported goods, services and amenities is essential to a civilized society. Public goods should be paid for through progressive taxation and financed at a level that makes possible high quality, so that everyone wants to use them—not, as with our present urban public school systems, grudgingly funded to provide a bare minimum for the poor. Public goods should not be means tested: there should not be (inferior) state-funded medical care for the poor or (inferior) state-funded day care centers for welfare mothers, but a high standard of health care and child care for all. Parks, museums, libraries and other cultural institutions are necessities, not “frills” to be cut to the bone whenever the corporations decree austerity. A strong public sector not only serves many human needs that would otherwise go unmet; it reduces class inequality and promotes a vibrant cultural life.
Education
Money in itself will not solve the problems of public schools, but only a massive infusion of funds can make it possible to begin to tackle those problems. If we want to attract highly qualified teachers and keep them from burning out, we need money to increase their pay and provide them with decent working conditions. We need money to reduce class size, maintain the schools’ physical plant, and provide basic supplies so that teachers are not reduced to buying their own paper and chalk. Schools should be funded by the state to eliminate the inequalities produced by the present property-tax system of school financing.
End the tyranny of standardized testing and treat learning as the complex endeavor it is—an art, not a science. Raise standards for the education of teachers and encourage them to be intellectuals, rather than devising mechanical curricula designed to somehow make learning “teacher proof.”
Cultural education, including the visual arts, instrumental music and theatre must be returned to the entire New York State primary and secondary schools systems as a requirement and prerequisite for high school graduation.
Restore free tuition to the City and State Universities, with equal access regardless of immigration status. Adult enrichment education and vocational retraining should be available free to all.
Child Care
New York State should fund a network of neighborhood child care centers cooperatively run by parents and teachers and available to all.
Parents should be entitled to a year of paid parental leave.
Health
New York State should establish a single-payer health insurance system and a network of neighborhood walk-in clinics open 24 hours a day. Prescription drugs, medical appliances, dental care, short or long term home care and rehabilitation services should be fully funded.
The State should support the integration of traditional and alternative health maintenance approaches in its overall public health strategy, on the model of Manhattan's Sidney Hillman Family Health Center. The state should fund an Institute for Knowledge Recovery, dedicated to the research and cataloguing of health maintenance practices and natural remedies found among the Indigenous Peoples of the state and elsewhere.
We need a comprehensive policy to address the needs of the aging and chronically infirm, including people with AIDS. The state should support cooperative living arrangements that provide medical services to the chronically ill or the aged without compromising the dignity and autonomy of the patient. The nursing home racket should give way to naturally occurring retirement communities (NORCs), i.e., to the provision of care to the elderly while keeping them in their neighborhoods and current housing.
Culture
New York State should dramatically increase funding to arts institutions, including financing of cultural institutions that serve youth and disadvantaged or rural regions. Corporate-owned theatre concessions and film exhibition firms should be taxed to keep the price of admission reasonable.
Parks, libraries, and public radio and television should be fully supported with public funds rather than dependent on the largesse of corporate donors and so hostage to their priorities. Small parks and branch libraries are essential to the cultural life of neighborhoods and should receive constant support.
