A group of parents and school administrators are bombarding state legislators with letters to urge them to consider easing some financial requirements that are weighing down school budgets. Some school districts in Westchester claim they are having a difficult time managing mandates imposed by the state that lack the funding needed to implement and support them.
One mandate that school districts claim is costly is the requirement that they provide public school transportation for private school students. The Lower Westchester Education Consortium (LWEC), which is made up of 12 school districts, claims many districts have already seen challenges brought on by the costly requirements.
Some school districts have had to scale back extracurricular activities to compensate. And in the Ardsley Union Free School District, 20 teachers have been laid off in three years as well as 17 full-time teaching assistants and aides.
“We”™re forced to spend money on things we find to be less valuable,” Ardsley Superintendent Lauren Allan said. “The new state assessment for students requires us to use computers instead of paper and pencil.”
She said part of the problem with using that technology is the state requires students to take the exact same test at the exact same time.
“We have 200 fifth-graders. We do not have 200 computers.”
Allan, one of the superintendents that initiated the letter-writing campaign with parents, said the consortium wants to address four topics: Annual Professional Performance Review (APPR), 2 percent tax cap, local control and unfunded mandates.
The APPR requires school districts to give an annual evaluation to the performance of its teachers. Allan said the 2 percent tax cap was introduced during the recession limiting taxes on residents and the amount of money school districts can receive.
In 2011, the state proposed a plan to offer relief to school districts in an effort to offset the tax cap. Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo”™s administration put together an 11-member mandate relief council charged with reducing the financial burden on local governments and school districts.
The council released a report in December 2012 detailing what they determined would be a good plan of action. The state would offer “significant relief,” according to the report, on mandate relief for Medicaid, pension reform and early intervention. Yet the consortium said their four core issues are still a huge financial burden. They believe that”™s because their voices aren”™t being heard.
The lack of recognition bleeds into the other issue of local control. School districts recognized how little control they had over what their funds are used for.
“It almost feels like taxation without representation,” said Tracy Pyper, advocacy chair for the Westchester/East Putnam region PTA and chair of the consortium. “We have so little control over what”™s being imposed on our local school districts.”
She added, “We”™re paying these very high taxes yet we”™re being told our money has to go into programs that we don”™t necessarily support.” Pyper, a resident of Hastings-on-Hudson and parent of two high school students, added that the mandates, coupled with APPR and the tax cap is “financially unsustainable” for school districts like hers.
That sentiment is shared by the 12 that make up the consortium: Ardsley, Irvington, Dobbs Ferry, Eastchester, Edgemont, Elmsford, Hastings-on-Hudson, North Rockland, Rye Neck, Tarrytown, Valhalla and Yorktown Central. Additionally, Long Island has also initiated a letter-writing campaign that Allan said is in step with the LWEC.
State Sen. George Latimer is empathetic to the plight of the LWEC. He said he gets “tons of letters” from school districts about myriad issues. Regarding the LWEC, he said understands their concerns because some of the points are valid.
One issue Latimer, a Democrat who represents Rye, said deserves to be re-evaluated is mandatory testing of which he said he is “not big fan.” Yet Latimer contends that little can actually be done to change things.
“Everyone in the state capital has come to the same understanding.” He said the challenge is for legislators who represent vastly different communities to agree on relevant concerns when they come together in Albany. If the concerns of one district have little or no impact on another district it”™s a hard to come to a consensus.
Still Latimer believes the letter-writing campaign is important.
“I think it”™s worthwhile. Leadership needs to see the level of depth of parental support.”
The consortium is moving forward with the campaign. Allan said within the next week they hope to get 500 letters per district to legislators. “That would be a good saturation,” she said.
“The powers that be have not been listening to teachers, superintendents and the school boards,” Pyper added. “We”™re hoping that parents will turn the tide.”
