Cynthia Nixon has yet to confirm rumors that she’s running for governor of New York, but she does know what she’d tackle if she were to be elected.
“The public school system is so broken in New York State. We’re 49th in terms of equality in school funding — out of the country, 49th!” the Sex and the City alum, 51, told Us Weekly at The Only Boy Living in New York premiere at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City on Monday, August 7.
“That’s because of the way schools are funded,” Nixon continued. “They’re funded with property taxes spawned from back room deals, the senators in Albany who have more power get more funding, we have to throw all that out. It’s very complicated, but we have a funding formula that works that out and closes that gap if our state constitution gives us the right to a sound basic education system. The lawsuits have all found that children in the lowest paid districts cannot possibly get a sound basic education, so we need to have a minimum that people think is reasonable. We have to try and get a funding formula.”
The actress has some reservations about the thought of going into politics, though. “It’s a boys club and there are backroom deals,” she told Us. “What also scares me is, at the moment, on a national and international level, is that people who want to propagate untruths have so many channels to do it.”
Further elaborating on the “fake news” phenomenon, Nixon continued, “We all have to come together to agree on some truths and those have to be: What our country is doing, what we think is right and what is not OK.”
The Emmy winner also opened up about her potential gubernatorial run on the Today show on Tuesday, May 8, where she criticized New York’s current governor, Andrew Cuomo, who is expected to bid for a third term in 2018. “Governor Cuomo likes to say we spend more per pupil [than] any other state. And that is actually true, but the only reason that is true is that we spend so much in our wealthiest districts. So that evens out,” she said.
