Issue Position: Fighting for Our Children Education

Issue Position

As a member of the Senate Education Committee, Mike has been an outspoken advocate for reforming and reducing burdensome regulations that increase the costs to our schools and have no impact on classroom learning.

Mike is leading the fight to abolish the Gap Elimination Adjustment (GEA) which has had a disproportionate impact on rural and suburban school districts across upstate New York. The GEA was created in 2010 under the all Democratic leadership in the Senate and Assembly, and has resulted in millions of dollars being diverted from our rural and suburban school districts. Since taking back the majority in the Senate, Mike has lead the fight to eliminate the GEA and successfully reduced its impact state-wide by over 65%, restoring over $1.7 billion.

In addition to addressing the fiscal issues our schools face, Mike has been an outspoken critic of the State implementation of Common Core Standards and has introduced several pieces of legislation to reduce testing and protect students' personal information. Most recently, Mike stood up for students and opposed Democratic efforts to reappoint the Regents who are responsible for Common Core in New York State.

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