OCTOBER 14 - OCTOBER 20, 2020 • VOLUME 11 - No. 41 Together, we offer an affordable Medicare Advantage plan with doctors you trust Montefiore + Oscar offer: Monthly premiums as low as $0 Medical and prescription drug deductibles as low as $0 Primary care visit copays for $0 Same-day prescription home delivery for $01 You’ll get up to $4,280 in additional benefits each year, including dental, vision, hearing and an over-the-counter allowance. This is the Medicare Advantage plan you’ve earned. Call 1-718-514-6274 (TTY: 711) or visit hioscar.com/medicare/bronx to enroll today. 1Same day prescription delivery provided through Capsule pharmacy. Oscar is an HMO with a Medicare contract. Enrollment in Oscar depends on contract renewal. Other providers are available in our network. H5126_H7322_H8961_MKTSEP20025S_M 2 OCTOBER 14, 2020 • THE BRONX FREE PRESS • www.thebronxfreepress.com No Cost CUNY? Stringer, who is also a declared mayoral Free tuition candidate, called CUNY “essential to any workforce development strategy in New York proposal for CUNY City” and vital for economic recovery. “As we emerge from this economic crisis, community colleges we need to work with CUNY and other engines of economic mobility to build a pipeline of arn grades, gratis. opportunity for the next generation and live up E to a promise that anyone can make it in New A new proposal from New York City York City,” he said. Comptroller Scott M. Stringer is pushing free The CUNY system features seven tuition at all City University of New York community colleges offering associate degree (CUNY) community colleges as part of a programs that prepare students for senior plan to overhaul workforce development in colleges or entry into professional careers. the city. The city and state should make CUNY Stringer’s plan, released on October 14, community colleges tuition-free, Stringer calls for the city to dramatically expand suggested, and also guarantee universal access the scale and accessibility of education and Comptroller Scott Stringer said the to the program titled CUNY ASAP -- which plan would "break down systemic barriers." job training programs. He also proposed a provides financial assistance for books and universal paid internship program for CUNY transportation -- for all full-time, community Among the additional proposals outlined in • Buildout of campus Career Engagement students and increase in apprenticeships and college students. Stringer’s analysis: and Development Centers to help subsidized wage programs. Stringer noted that only 21 percent of • Expansion of the New York State tuition- students find paid work that aligns with “My plan overhauls our approach to job CUNY students participated in an internship free Excelsior Program, which currently their studies. training, job placement, and education. It in 2019, with only 12 percent in a paid serves less than 2 percent of CUNY students. • Increasing the number of early-college would break down systemic barriers that internship. “The city and CUNY should work • Hiring of 50 “college navigators” at CUNY high schools, with at least one in each of have excluded women, people of color, with private sector employers to build out a to help advise adult learners who have been New York City’s 32 community school immigrants and young people from higher- universal, guaranteed paid internship program away from higher education for several districts. wage industries. Let's build a NYC for for all students entering their final year of years. everyone,” Stringer said on Twitter. study,” he said. See CUNY p14 La propuesta garantizaría colegios universitarios gratuitos. El sistema es la universidad pública urbana más grande del país. “A medida que salimos de esta crisis pasantía en 2019, con solo el 12 por ciento económica, necesitamos trabajar con CUNY en una pasantía remunerada. “La ciudad y ¿CUNY sin costo? y otros motores de movilidad económica para CUNY deberían trabajar con los empleadores de los programas de educación y capacitación construir una línea de oportunidades para la del sector privado para construir un programa Propuesta de matrícula laboral. También propone un programa universal próxima generación y cumplir con la promesa de universal de pasantías remuneradas gratuita para colegios de pasantías remuneradas para los estudiantes que cualquiera puede lograrlo en la ciudad de garantizadas para todos los estudiantes que de CUNY y un aumento en los programas de Nueva York”, dijo. ingresan a su último año de estudios”, dijo. universitarios de CUNY aprendizaje y salarios subsidiados. El sistema CUNY cuenta con siete colegios Entre las propuestas adicionales descritas universitarios que ofrecen programas de grado en el análisis de Stringer se encuentran: btenga calificaciones gratis. “Mi plan reajusta nuestro enfoque de capacitación laboral, colocación laboral y asociado que preparan a los estudiantes para • Expansión del Programa Excelsior, libre educación. Derribaría las barreras sistémicas los colegios superiores o el ingreso a carreras de matrícula, del estado de Nueva York, O Una nueva propuesta del contralor de que han excluido a las mujeres, las personas profesionales. que actualmente atiende a menos del 2 por la ciudad de Nueva York, Scott M. Stringer, de color, los inmigrantes y los jóvenes de las La ciudad y el estado deberían hacer que ciento de los estudiantes de CUNY. impulsa la matrícula gratuita en todos los industrias con salarios más altos. Construyamos las universidades comunitarias de CUNY sean • Contratación de 50 "navegantes colegios universitarios de la City University de una NYC para todos”, dijo Stringer en Twitter. gratuitas, sugirió Stringer, y también garantizar universitarios" en CUNY para ayudar a Nueva York (CUNY) como parte de un plan Stringer, quien también es un candidato a el acceso universal al programa con título CUNY asesorar a los estudiantes adultos que para reformar el desarrollo de la fuerza laboral alcalde declarado, dijo que CUNY es "esencial ASAP, que brinda asistencia financiera para han estado fuera de la educación superior en la ciudad. para cualquier estrategia de desarrollo de la libros y transporte, para todos los estudiantes de durante varios años. El plan de Stringer, publicado el 14 de fuerza laboral en la ciudad de Nueva York" y vital universidades comunitarias de tiempo completo. • Creación de centros de desarrollo y octubre, exige que la ciudad expanda para la recuperación económica. Stringer señaló que solo el 21 por ciento participación profesional en el campus drásticamente la escala y la accesibilidad de los estudiantes de CUNY participó en una Vea CUNY p14 OCTOBER 14, 2020 • THE BRONX FREE PRESS • www.thebronxfreepress.com 3 Juneteenth designated state public holiday he nineteenth will be the Juneteenth commemorates June 19, fourteenth. 1865, when the news of liberation came T to Texas more than two years after President Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation New legislation signed on Juneteenth, a Proclamation went into effect on January 1, day that commemorates the end of slavery 1863. and celebrates Black achievements in the Blacks across Texas were made aware U.S., will now make it an official public of their right to freedom on this day when holiday in New York State. The law, Major General Gordon Granger arrived signed this past week by Governor Andrew in Galveston with federal troops to read Cuomo, officially makes June 19 one of 14 General Order No. 3 announcing the end public holidays in the state. of the Civil War and that all enslaved were "This new public holiday will serve as now free, as well as to maintain a presence a day to recognize the achievements of the in Texas for the purpose of enforcement Black community, while also providing an of emancipation among slave-owners important opportunity for self-reflection on throughout the state. the systemic injustices that our society still "Finally, we are beginning to faces today," said Cuomo in a statement. acknowledge the historic oppression and The legislation was passed by the state injustices that African-Americans have Senate and Assembly in late July, and endured. This holiday is a first step in signed by Cuomo on October 14. reconciliation and healing that our great Earlier this year, Cuomo issued an state needs in order to ensure equity for all executive order recognizing Juneteenth as people," said State Senator Kevin Parker, a holiday for New York State employees. one of the bill’s sponsors. A Juneteenth Emancipation Day Celebration held on June 19, 1900 in Texas. 4 OCTOBER 14, 2020 • THE BRONX FREE PRESS • www.thebronxfreepress.com "It took us by surprise" with city contracts by paying them more to New concerns for cover indirect costs, which can include rent and payroll as well as IT, maintenance, human nonprofits facing resources and accounting expenses. operating budget cuts However, after the COVID-19 pandemic wreaked havoc on the city’s finances, de By Gregg McQueen Blasio and Johnson declared they were slashing $20 million a year from the initiative -- including retroactively from FY20 -- as the hen Mayor Bill de Blasio and city’s latest budget was approved. WCity Council Speaker Corey The about-face left many in the nonprofit Johnson announced in December sector stunned. 2019 that the city was committing “It took us by surprise. Both the mayor and the Speaker hailed [ICR funding] as a to provide another $54 million groundbreaking initiative, said it was going annually to nonprofits for funding to stabilize the sector that was operating for overhead costs, human services many years without full funding,” said Nora Moran, Director of Policy and Advocacy at organizations were heartened. "We're very scared," said NMIC United Neighborhood Houses (UNH). Executive Director Maria Lizardo (left). “It’s very frustrating for organizations “It was like a light at the end of the when the funding that was promised to tunnel,” remarked Maria Lizardo, them not that long ago is taken away,” Neighborhood Center, which services residents “Those costs support the backbone of the Executive Director of Northern Moran said.