SILVER'S PUSH FOR $2.4B SCHOOL BOND IS CRITICIZED.(CAPITAL REGION)

Byline: -- John Caher

ALBANY -- The Legislature's most powerful Democrat is coming to town today, stumping for a $2.4 billion school bond issue which he says is essential and conservatives say is nothing more than pork-barrel borrowing.

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver of Manhattan has scheduled a press conference for this afternoon, followed by an editorial board meeting at the Times Union, to promote a bond act being sold to voters as a vehicle for repairing thousands of dilapidated schools and improving the health and safety of New York's children.

But state Conservative Party …