Author: tourist_yp6g7u

UNION PARTNER CONTENT

As a union representative representing thousands of employees who provide care to tens of thousands of veterans in New York and New Jersey and a licensed practical nurse for more than 30 years, I know all too well how the current anti-union, anti-worker climate directly impacts the care our nation’s veterans receive. 

For decades, my union, the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) has been sounding the alarm over several critical issues at the Department of Veterans Affairs, and how these issues impact our veterans. 

Simply put: VA is underfunded, understaffed, and, unprotected. 

AFGE members are committed to fulfilling the mission of the VA: to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan. Unfortunately, we are routinely met with anti-worker, anti-union attacks from Congress, the White House, and proponents of privatization, like the authors of Project 2025.

For years special interest groups have been trying to dismantle the VA so they can profit off the backs of our nation’s heroes. These special interest groups supported the 2018 VA Mission Act, the law that opened the floodgates for privatization by moving VA to a vouchering system, scaling back hiring and creating a commission to identify which VA facilities should be closed, to in turn force veterans to rely on expensive, private health care. 

Each budget season we see tens of millions of dollars allocated to the VA, but our facilities still need renovation, our technology is still outdated, our employees are still underpaid, and we still have more than 40,000 vacancies nationwide. To understand why this is, we must follow the money.

Over the past years, the VA has increased spending on private, for-profit health care. 

Now, veterans tell us time and time again; they want to receive their health care at the VA, which is the largest integrated healthcare system in the nation. Recently, two independent, nationwide patient surveys found that once again, VA health care outperformed non-VA health care.

If veterans want to receive care at the VA and the data shows that veterans receive more quality care and a lower cost at the VA, why is there such a push to privatize? Because corporate billionaires, the Heritage Foundation, Donald Trump and other elected officials care more about money than veterans. Profit over people.

The VA has been understaffed for decades, crippling our workforce and contributing to the false narrative that VA employees cannot and do not do their jobs. AFGE members are proud and work hard to ensure that each veteran receives the specialized care they deserve, however, we cannot do our jobs to the best of our ability if we don’t have the resources.

The VA New York Harbor Healthcare system including Manhattan, Brooklyn and St. Albans hospitals has nearly 200 vacant positions. In North Port there are 42. East Orange has 64 vacancies and Buffalo has 98. This is not an isolated issue. This is not a New York/New Jersey issue. This is a nationwide issue that must be addressed for our veterans. 

Instead of fully staffing our facilities, Project 2025 would instead further outsource VA care to costly, for-profit providers, place unrealistic performance standards on doctors and replace benefit claims processors with AI.

Our veterans deserve to receive care from health care providers who specialize in veteran care and when they have questions about their benefits, they should be able to pick up the phone and talk to human, a not an AI chatbot. 

While AFGE supports advances in technology, we do not support using it to eliminate jobs at the detriment of veteran care. 

Another facet of Project 2025’s plan to dismantle the VA is to eliminate the Office of Accountability and Whistleblower Protection. This should alarm all workers, unions, veterans and their families as this office protects employees who report waste, fraud and abuse and to independently investigates and addresses their claims. Eliminating it is not only an attempt to silence workers, but it will allow corruption and other abuse to go unchecked.

Privatization and outsourcing not only diminishes services to our veterans and pits workers against each other, but are an attack on veterans’ jobs, as 1 out of 3 VA employees are veterans themselves. 

AFGE members at the VA are dedicated to doing our jobs. We live in every town, village, county and borough in New York and New Jersey and contribute in all aspects to the benefit of our communities and our veterans. 

Our union cannot allow the negative rhetoric and political narratives against our members to continue all so private health care providers can make a fortune off VA healthcare. 

AFGE stands for fairness and equality, and our fight is far from over. Unions are the lifeblood of the middle-class and our communities are dependent on these jobs to provide for our families and boost the economy. 

We are proud of the work we do, and although the VA and our union rights are under attack, we have not and will not turn our backs on America’s heroes. We ask our elected officials and VA leadership not to turn their backs on us.Geddes Scott is the President of AFGE Local 1988 at the St. Albans VA Medical Center in Queens, NY, and president of the AFGE NY/NJ VA Council 246 representing 4,000 VA employees in New York and New Jersey.

The post Privatization and Project 2025: The Covert Attack on Veterans, Employees, Unions and the Middle Class appeared first on New York Amsterdam News.

* This article was originally published here

In a historic move for education, New York City will see the launch of its first-ever HBCU Early College Prep High School in September 2025. The school, set to open in southeast Queens, represents an innovative partnership between the NYC Department of Education and Delaware State University (DSU).

The program will allow students to graduate with both a high school diploma and an associate’s degree — at no cost. This initiative, led by Dr. Asya Johnson, chancellor’s master principal of NYC Public Schools, combines rigorous college preparatory education with the legacy and culture of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs).

The idea of creating a high school in New York with HBCU roots came to Johnson during an annual visit to DSU, her alma mater, with some New York high school students interested in touring the school.

“I knew some folks down there, and I (thought), well, I’m going to write this proposal (for the school), and instead of it just being an early-college high school, it would also offer courses culturally relevant and interesting to its students,” Johnson told Word in Black. “I knew that New York City was really big on innovation, so I thought, let’s have an HBCU early college, where they not only get an associate’s degree but also get the HBCU experience.”

The school’s structure will allow students to earn dual college and high school credits starting in ninth grade. By the time they graduate, students will have enough credits for both a high school diploma and an associate’s degree. The program anticipates about 100 students in its first year and plans to expand to between 460 and 500 thereafter.

The program will offer a hybrid model: In the first few years, students will take high school courses at the Queens campus, while DSU faculty will train the high school faculty in how to teach classes from the DSU curriculum. Students will have more flexibility in their junior and senior years, with some college courses available remotely.

The significance of HBCU early college prep in New York

The opening of this high school in New York City is particularly significant: The city has a vibrant Black diaspora, yet the state lacks an HBCU. Johnson said the school will be the first of its kind in a large public K–12 system and will address and help close the Black-white education gap.

“I had a great experience at Delaware State University, but I often thought about what I did not receive as a student in high school,” she said.

A former principal in the South Bronx and a member of New York City’s Diversity Advisory Group, Johnson said the HBCU Prep curriculum will not only include culturally responsive coursework but also help students meet state academic standards. It “aims to provide students with an academic experience grounded in Black history and culture while also preparing them for the rigors of higher education,” she said.

To qualify for the degree, students must meet the New York State high school graduation requirements: complete 44 high school credits and pass five Regents exams. At the same time, they will complete dual-enrollment courses from DSU, which faculty members will oversee to ensure students meet the academic standards for an associate’s degree.

Closing the Black student achievement gap

The HBCU Early College Prep High School is set to launch at a pivotal time. Nationwide, Black students face significant disparities in education, from lower graduation rates to under-representation in advanced coursework. This program has the potential to alter those disparities by offering accelerated learning opportunities and support systems that are often missing in traditional public school settings.

Studies show that students who take community-college courses while in high school are more likely to finish high school, positioning them for greater success in higher education. Johnson said this school will give them a head start.

“If we can get students to finish a bachelor’s degree by 20, we’re not only changing their lives but also helping their families by reducing financial burdens,” Johnson says.

National relevance and potential impact on education

The HBCU prep high school represents a milestone for New York City, and its significance also goes beyond city limits. As one of the first programs of its kind in a major city, and with a growing interest in culturally responsive education, it could serve as a model for other cities nationwide. Johnson said she has already received inquiries from states like California, Texas, and Ohio.

“In my ideal world, I’d love to replicate this,” she said. “We need to see more schools like this that offer students a culturally relevant, accelerated path to higher education.”

The post Can this HBCU high school help Black student achievement in NYC? appeared first on New York Amsterdam News.

* This article was originally published here

New Yorkers preparing to vote will see a lot that’s familiar and a lot that isn’t on their ballots — especially on the propositions. Although the wording can get complicated to try and trip voters up, one thing is for sure: We should all vote “no” on propositions 2-6 because they will give us bad governance and a bad deal for years to come. 

Over the past few months, we have heard about Project 2025 and how Trump and his cronies plan to systematically erode the systems that do not serve their interests or their donors. While Trump attempts this at a national level, a similarly insidious power grab is playing out here in New York City by our own mayor. If successful, it would grant future mayors unprecedented power while allowing them to add more bureaucratic hurdles that make it harder to pass meaningful legislation that New Yorkers need, want, and deserve. 

This summer, Mayor Adams began an attempt to undermine democracy, rewrite how our local government works and block critical oversight of his office by launching an intentionally shady effort to rewrite the New York City charter, which is essentially our city’s constitution through Propositions 2-6. 

Our city, like any other and the country itself, is guided by a set of rules in the charter that distinguishes who has what authority and in what areas they can use that power. In an attempt to amass more power, Adams appointed a City Charter Revision Commission stuffed with his closest allies to make a slapdash attempt to rewrite the charter this November. 

Most prior charter revision commissions conducted hearings over several months, even over a year, to engage as many New Yorkers as possible. This committee process took only 7 weeks from the first hearing to final vote, and it is worth asking why: Adams created the charter commission to knock a City Council measure off the ballot. This proposal would have improved checks and balances and New York City’s democracy. Adams has shown his displeasure with challenges to his circle’s power, but New Yorkers deserve leadership that delivers sensible legislation, like the How Many Stops Act, which passed with a City Council override last year after Adams vetoed it. This is an example of good governance that we should all get behind, but Adams is often late to the party whenever we ask for more transparency from him and his friends. 

New Yorkers will get to vote to say “no” to propositions 2-6, but if they are passed in November, these changes would erode separation of powers in city government while giving Adams’ administration and future mayors unchecked power. Here’s a look at what some of these changes would really do for and to New Yorkers: 

• Proposal 2 expands the power of the Sanitation Department to police and fine small businesses, which would directly increase the likelihood that street vendors are criminalized instead of celebrated and supported. 
• Proposal 3 makes the city’s budget process less transparent and delays budget deadlines for the mayor, giving less time for the public and oversight bodies to analyze and respond to budget proposals (like the mayor’s cuts to libraries, schools and pre-K). It also weakens checks and balances and creates new ways for mayors to derail initiatives they don’t like without having to answer publicly for opposing popular initiatives like child care and housing assistance. 
• Proposal 4 erodes separation of powers and gives the Mayor, the Department of Corrections and NYPD unprecedented legislative powers (which isn’t their role in government), along with new ways to block transparency and accountability. At a time when New Yorkers are asking for more accountability for abusive officers from these agencies, this will give them the cover to hide behind. 
• Proposal 5 is a misleading and virtually meaningless ballot proposition that was created in bad faith. The mayor’s charter commission claimed that Proposal 5 was based on a recommendation from the city’s Comptroller (the city’s top financial executive) — but the Comptroller issued a statement saying this was patently false and that the proposal does not advance transparency or improve the planning process in any way. 
• Proposal 6 is an insulting name check on Minority and Women-Owned Businesses (MWOBs) while doing nothing to support them. The proposal would strip permitting power from current offices in government and consolidate those decisions into future mayors’ administrations. It does not improve the lives or experiences of MWOB owners, it just bundles their dreams into a box of bureaucracy. It is a collection of three totally unrelated issues that gives the illusion of support in an attempt to put window dressing on the full package of proposals.

These revisions are intentionally and carefully constructed to offer seemingly innocuous language about fiscal responsibility or clean streets, but in truth, they are the same kind of bad faith game-playing that had led to multiple investigations of Mayor Adams, his office and most of his top people. These dangerous power grabs will undermine oversight and democracy in New York City for years to come. 

New Yorkers know a scam when they see one. This whole process has been undemocratic, and so too are all of the resulting ballot proposals. We also need to ask ourselves why — at a time when he and his closest allies are at the center of multiple investigations — we would give our mayor more unchecked power.

In so many ways, this upcoming election is about the New York City we deserve. Will we choose to allow this administration to seize more power or will we choose to say no to bad leadership and bad decisions? New Yorkers should look to defend democracy and good governance up and down the ballot in November. Vote “no” on Props 2-6, the Mayor’s five proposed ballot measures, because they are dangerous for democracy and dangerous for New York.
Rashad Robinson is president of Color Of Change, a racial justice organization with millions of members who demonstrate the power of Black communities every single day.

The post OP-ED: NYC Should Say “No” to Adams’ Corrupt Power Grab appeared first on New York Amsterdam News.

* This article was originally published here