Schools losing sacred-cow status
School boards in Rockland County, like their counterparts across the region, are coping with skyrocketing salaries, the inability to get districts to buy into sharing services or buying supplies together. Increasingly, they are sparring with disgruntled taxpayers who want to know where their money is going ”“ or where it has gone.
Bryan Burrell, president of Nyack”™s school board and executive director of the Rockland County School Boards Association, hit on some hard-to-dance-around facts and figures when he addressed the Rockland Business Association at its February luncheon at Casa Mia House in Blauvelt on Feb. 11.
He pointed to some mid-Hudson districts that have tried to rein in spending: “Brewster has imposed a one-year freeze on salaries, while Kingston”™s school district can”™t come to terms with its union and Saugerties is facing job cuts.
“Everything is being discussed,” said Burrell. “Class size, tenure, Tier 5 pensions ”¦ these are all the ”˜sacred cows”™ and they are all being challenged.”
There is tremendous pressure on school boards to maintain the status quo, particularly from unions and New York State education mandates.
“No one wants education to be minimized, but how can we balance it?” Burrell asked. “The business community must become involved in this area,” since students of today will eventually go on to college and come back expecting to fill jobs the senior members of the business community now hold.
For all the talk of revolt, school budgets are among the most hands-on form of taxation and school district voters historically approve their school budgets every May. Of the 700-plus school budgets put forth in the state in 2009, just 17 failed and six of those won on revotes. The remaining schools are operating with contingency budgets.
Saying the county, state and nation are “facing unparalleled financial challenges, the likes of which we have not experienced in our lifetime,” school boards, teachers”™ unions and rank-and-file members of the administrations must come to grips with the new reality: Albany is out of money, and spending what you don”™t have and can”™t expect to receive is neither realistic or prudent.
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Albany isn”™t helping either, said Burrell. “Every year, 40 percent of the cost for the Individuals with Educational and Disabilities Act is promised by New York. Although our Legislature authorizes it ever year, we never see the actual authorization to get the money.”
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Burrell bemoaned teacher”™s pensions, saying, “From 2000-2005, there was a 600 percent increase to teachers”™ pensions. The problem is Albany doesn”™t seem to understand when they give something to an employee, they also give it to teachers. School districts have been working to contain costs, but taxpayers aren”™t really going to feel it until the STAR program is taken away. Wait till the taxpayers see their bills then.”
If the Hudson Valley were a lemon, Burrell said that between New York City and areas west of the mid-Hudson, it is suffering from it”™s position between two powerful coalitions: “We”™re in the middle, being squeezed. With a consumer price index of zero,” said Burrell, “no district that tries to go above a 2 percent increase in its budget this year is going to pass.”
Trying to get school districts to consolidate services ”“ using the same plowing and landscaping contractors and sharing other services ”“ is not really happening anywhere near enough to make a dent in spending. Burrell said taxpayers are fed up with business as usual in the system, despite the Great Recession looming over both government”™s and the taxpayers”™ heads.
After the presentation, Jonathan Drapkin, president of Pattern for Progress, said Burrell”™s conversation about Rockland”™s challenges needs to be taken all over the mid-Hudson. “This is the single largest issue we are facing: the cost of funding education.”
Some school districts, however, are reacting.
New Paltz voters overwhelmingly rejected a $50 million addition to its middle school on Tuesday, Feb. 9 by a more than 2-1 margin. Their main concern? The $20 million promised to the district by the state to help pay for the renovations.
Voters, who wonder why bells and whistles aren”™t producing better grades, also wonder how the state can afford to fund school improvements when it cannot get itself out of its own financial pit. “And this is just the beginning,” said Drapkin. “Wait until 2011-2012, when ARRA funding is taken out of the equation. It”™s time people started to wake up and take control of what”™s happening in their communities.”
Most RBA members just shook their heads as they headed back to work. “How much longer can we afford to stay in these communities” lamented one member. “I haven”™t gotten a raise in two years, and don”™t know how much longer I can stay here with the constant raise in property tax and all these extra fees.”
Samuels came down on Paterson”™s new “soda” tax, touted to help curb obesity. “The state hopes to raise $500 million on this tax, but what does it mean to Pepsico and Pepsi Bottling in Somers and Purchase, which just merged? We”™ve already lost 900 jobs when Starwood went across the border, and now we are in jeopardy of losing 2,000 more.” Starwood plans to move from White Plains to Stamford, Conn., next year.
“The Empire Zone will sunset in June, 2010,” said Samuels. “Companies already in the program are grandfathered. Unfortunately, their incentive tax credits are not. What are we telling businesses and site selectors?
“A promise to create tax incentives two years down the road to potential businesses doesn”™t appeal when site selectors see the state going back on its word, as it is doing with the incentive tax credits,” he said. “It”™s telling business that New York does not keep its promises. Ask yourself what New York state”™s lack of funding will do to our educational system ”“ or other programs, for that matter. You can”™t plan on promises.”