Indian Time - A Voice from the Eastern Door

PULLING APART: INCOME POLARIZATION IN NEW YORK STATE

November 15, 2012 - A new report from the Fiscal Policy Institute shows that various income measures all point toward the same conclusions: in recent years, polarization has intensified; and New York has been one of the national leaders in this undesirable trend. The top one percent share of income dipped during the recession, but has started to rise again in the recovery. Further, no state is more polarized than New York and no large city is more polarized than New York City. This is in part because poverty is greater in New York State and New York City than in the nation overall, and partly because the finance sector, with its sky-high pay levels, is such a prominent part of the local economy. Other factors are also important, but these are the two that “bookend” New York’s polarization.

While many actions will be needed to reverse New York’s income polarization, an important step currently being considered in Albany is boosting the state’s minimum wage, which the report shows has lost 30% of its purchasing power since the early 1970s.

The Fiscal Policy Institute (FPI) is an independent, nonpartisan, nonprofit research and education organization committed to improving public policies and private practices to better the economic and social conditions of all New Yorkers.

SCHUMER URGES NYS BOARD OF REGENTS TO SWIFTLY APPROVE TWO NEW HIGH SCHOOL DIPLOMAS BASED ON MATH & SCIENCE, CAREER SKILLS

U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer launched his push to help connect thousands of Upstate New Yorkers with today’s locally-available jobs, through an initiative to create two new, alternative pathways to high school graduation in New York State. Specifically, Schumer is urging the New York State Board of Regents to approve a Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) diploma and pathway to high school graduation to produce more highly-skilled workers for New York’s high-tech industries; and a Career and Technical Education (CTE) diploma and pathway to high school graduation, focused on skills needed to attain regional manufacturing jobs, such as: precision machining, welding, optics and imaging to name a few.

The ongoing process to implement these new pathways and diplomas will be addressed at upcoming Board of Regents meetings where the CTE and STEM Advisory Panels will discuss the necessary and proposed regulatory language to support a CTE instructional continuum. The Board of Regents will then have to vote on regulation changes pertaining to assessments. If the process is successful, the new pathways will apply to the entering student cohort of September 2013.