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While making ends meet has been difficult for some, generally speaking things have been good these past fifteen years. New York State and New York City especially, receive a fortune from the financial markets centered here. Whether stocks are bought or sold, whether market indices are up or down, the city and state get a small piece of each of the billions of transactions that take place. So long as there is movement, New York thrives. It’s when there is no activity, when things are still, that we suffer. I suppose that’s an apt analogy for New York – we’re fine so long as we don’t have to sit still.

Those who follow state government and education policy don’t have to worry about no activity in Governor Spitzer’s first budget proposal – we got movement aplenty. Eliot Spitzer’s first budget is the sort one would expect from a Governor who was elected with a mandate to make hard choices. Not that there’s anything horrible – no decimating of critical social services – but there is a lot of accountability and reporting and a lot of responsibility put on both public officials and managers to get things done.

Here’s what Governor Spitzer had to say in an education policy talk just the day before his budget was released: “Many private and parochial schools do an excellent job of educating many of our kids and they deserve our thanks and support.  Our first priority must be funding public schools, but to the extent the law and our fiscal resources allow, we should support parents who choose to send their kids to private and parochial schools.”

And he means it.

A one-paragraph item tucked away in one of his five budget proposal volumes has, no exaggeration, been the focus of no fewer than two major newspaper articles, one statewide wire story and one editorial: state tax deductibility for K-12 tuition payments.

We at TEACH NYS are pleased with Governor Spitzer’s embrace of our ‘help for families’ model. With real tax relief for families tied specifically to education provided in the form of a historic deduction for tuition payments, Eliot Spitzer has demonstrated his commitment to the 15% of New York’s students who attend private and parochial schools.

He has also clearly committed himself to insisting that discussions on education policy must include talking about families that send their children to private and parochial schools.

Here in New York we are close to closing the book on lengthy litigation involving how New York City public schools have been funded. The public school teachers unions have been the driving force behind this litigation. The courts ruled, for a variety of reasons, that City schools have been historically under-funded. They ordered a multi-billion dollar infusion of cash to fix the problem. One would think, in the context of that money finally being released, that the teachers unions would be even just a bit magnanimous and not oppose Governor Spitzer’s tax relief plan for tuition paying parents. Think again. Their response has been near hysterical.

In the coming weeks and months TEACH NYS will be working with Governor Spitzer to make his laudable plan even better – especially for New York’s poorest families – and will be pressing the Legislature, hard, to accept in their final budget negotiations what common sense tells us so many parents need in order to maximize the educational opportunities available to their children.

Michael Tobman, Executive Director of TEACH NYS and New York lobbyist & political consultant, is a former senior aide to US Senator Chuck Schumer.