Why are our school districts crying poverty when they have been inundated with records amounts of cash from the state and federal government over the last several years?
We disagree with Governor Hochul’s plan to consider cutting aid to some Long Island schools. We don’t want to see school aid cut. We just want to put the brakes on continuing to tax us by throwing more and more money into school districts, as though that is going to be the answer for better student performance.
Progressives in Albany are trying to recalculate the education aid formula, so that those districts considered wealthier such as many Long Island districts, start getting cut, and more money transferred into the underperforming schools.
We have been down this road before. In fact, in the early part of the 21st century, The New York State Court of Appeals ruled that the funding system was inequitable and demanded that billions more be given to the lower-wealth districts. It is a fallacy to suggest that the spending per pupil in these lower districts is significantly less than the other districts. In fact, they are already getting far more money in state aid than the wealthier districts. For instance, Hempstead receives $166 million while Garden City receives $7 million. Overall, Hempstead spends $34,000 per student, compared to Garden City’s $29,000.
We once again direct you to a chart developed by our center, which illustrates that there is no correlation between increased school spending and better academic performance from our students.
Check out this article written by Kyle Strober, the executive director of The Association For a Better Long Island. The article highlights how much money these schools have in reserves and the fact that they have hoarded far more money above that places a 4% cap on escrows. Our center has been pushing for the comptroller to claw back the money held in escrow that exceeds the legal cap and return it as a direct rebate to taxpayers.
We agree with Strober that these districts have to stop crying poverty and increasing our taxes while they’re sitting on so much money.