Everyone deserves the opportunity for a good education – the first step to a better future. 

When he was in the Assembly, Assemblyman Abinanti stood up for our suburban schools – working to ensure that our schools have the resources to provide all children with a quality education.

K-12 Schools 

Assemblyman Abinanti was part of the effort to significantly increase state   K-12 funding. Recent state budgets included record funding for “Foundation Aid” (the state’s funding formula), for after-school programs and for community school models.

Assemblyman Abinanti’s advocacy ensured that our suburban schools benefited from the increases in state funding. He worked with other suburban Assembly members to restructure aid formulas that have historically provided suburban school districts minimal state funding. He helped restore funds cut by the governor for expense-driven aids which are so important to our suburban schools.   

Stabilizing School Property Taxes

We need to reduce reliance on local property taxes as the primary source of education funding. Assemblyman Abinanti fought for the State to pay more of the cost of education and working to increase other funding streams. 

When he was a County Legislator, Abinanti  voted to share County sales tax revenues with Westchester school districts. Assemblyman Abinanti  recently voted to increase Westchester’s sales tax revenues that are shared with school districts to lessen dependence on already-too-high property taxes.

Higher Education: 

Assemblyman Abinanti supported numerous initiatives to better support our centers of higher education and their students, including increasing the Tuition Assistance program (TAP), freezing tuition for SUNY and CUNY students and increasing state aid to SUNY and CUNY.

Universal Pre-K

Pre-kindergarten has an immediate and lasting impact on children and families. Early learning programs make children better learners.

Assemblyman Abinanti joined with other suburban Assembly members to press for a statewide universal pre-kindergarten program.  Each year they were able to increase the state’s support. They obtained a commitment that the state will fund Universal Pre-Kindergarten (UPK) statewide.

Child Care

Appropriate affordable child care is a complement to good quality education. Professional child care not only serves the needs of working parents but also provides a stimulating learning environment for children.

Assemblyman Abinanti was a strong supporter of state funding to expand availability, quality and affordability of child care across the State and of meaningful incentives to employers to provide child care to their employees.

Common Core

Assemblyman Abinanti was an outspoken critic of the unprofessional rollout of the “Common Core” standards designed to educate New York’s children. 

High Stakes Testing – He worked with other Assembly members to restrict the use of standardized test scores in determining student placement and teacher evaluations.

Data Sharing – He worked with other Assembly members to institute data privacy protections  restricting  the collection,  storage and sharing of student data.