I am excited to let you know that Brian Jones has stepped up to run as the Green Party candidate for Lieutenant Governor. Brian would not just balance the Green Party ticket. He will multiply it. To be sure, balance is good. He’s downstate; I’m upstate. He’s a Teacher; I’m a Teamster. He’s black; I’m white. He’s younger; I’m older. Brian brings a record of effective and significant organizing, speaking, and acting on the issue that I am hearing the most about from voters as I campaign around the state: public education. Governor Cuomo’s education policies are openly advancing the privatization of public education sought by the hedge funders and corporate contractors who seek to profit from education spending. Cuomo is doing what the hedge funders who invest in charter schools are paying him to do with their over $1 million in campaign contributions to Governor 1%. But the people who want to fight back and vote for an alternative are growing every day. Students are being denied a sound basic education by the corporate privatization agenda. Parents are angry at the high-stakes testing linked to Common Core-poratization, which is really about privatization and profits, not quality education. Teachers are up in arms at the attacks on their wages, benefits, working conditions, unions, and very standing as professional educators. Taxpayers all across the state want an alternative to the Cuomo’s rich man’s budgets that lavish tax breaks on the rich while so many school districts face fiscal distress. Dozens of districts are headed for outright insolvency and takeover by a state-appointed control board even as their property taxes still go up and school funding, staffing, and programs still go down Brian is a leader in the movement for quality public schools and resistance to the corporate reform agenda. He believes that quality education should be a human right, not a just a luxury for those who can afford it. Brian helped organize the Movement of Rank and File Educators, the social justice caucus of the United Federation of Teachers. He has had op-eds on education policy printed in the New York Times, the Indypendent and other publications. He has appeared on Democracy Now!, MSNBC, and New York City media speaking to these issues. He co-narrated the film, The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for Superman. He contributed to the book, Education and Capitalism: Struggles for Learning and Liberation. Brian has also lent his voice to several audiobooks, including The John Carlos Story: The Sports Moment That Changed the World and Howard Zinn’s one-man play, Marx in Soho. Brian is the recipient of a 2012 Lannan Cultural Freedom Fellowship. In short, Brian is not just better on the issues. He is better qualified than anybody the Democrats or Republicans are capable of finding to run for Lieutenant Governor on their tickets. Please nominate Brian Jones for Lieutenant Governor at the Green Party convention on Saturday May 17 in Troy. And please, make a financial contribution to our campaign today so that after the convention, we can hit the ground running. -Howie Hawkins

Candidate for the Green Party nomination for New York Governor Howie Hawkins http://www.howiehawkins.org/