School Board
members lobby for aid
POSTED: April 8, 2011
Port Jervis School
District Board of Education members are continuing their efforts
to help state legislators understand that the current
distribution of school aid is unfair to poorer school districts
and communities.
School Board members Roger Kalin, Tom Sexton, and Bill Smith
took their message to Albany recently along with over 300 school
officials at the annual New York State School Boards Association
(NYSSBA) Lobby Day. In a show of solidarity, the coalition of
school board members rallied for additional state funding,
educational mandate reform, and a more equitable distribution of
school aid. They also petitioned legislators to reject calls for
a cap on school property taxes and to avoid shifting costs from
the state and other municipalities onto local school property
taxes.
“Lobby Day provides representatives from all over the state with
a unique opportunity to deliver a unified message to legislators
on issues that matter to all of our school districts,” said
Kalin. “Given the state’s financial crisis, it’s more important
than ever that we all work together to advocate for constructive
solutions to changing fiscal circumstances.”
During their meeting with New York State Assemblywoman Aileen
Gunther, the Port Jervis board members focused on two issues
that would help provide much-needed relief to local taxpayers.
For the second consecutive year, they asked Gunther for unfunded
mandate relief.
Currently, unfunded mandates – stringent, unilateral
requirements imposed on school districts directing them to do
something without providing the necessary funding – cost New
York school districts billions of dollars annually. Kalin said a
ban on future mandates, and relief from current unfunded
mandates, would save Port Jervis taxpayers approximately $4
million a year.
The board members also asked Gunter to support legislation that
would recalculate how state aid is distributed so that the
schools in greatest need are not asked to bear the largest
funding cuts. “The current way of distributing education aid to
schools is fundamentally unfair,” explained Kalin, who notes
that aid distribution should be aligned with a community’s
actual ability to support its schools.
For years, the State has followed an inequitable funding formula
that does not acknowledge the community’s poverty level or its
inordinate level of local taxation. Kalin noted, “In today’s
economic environment, it’s crucial for the State to use a
formula that more accurately reflects local conditions.”
He stresses that, if the funding discrepancies are not
addressed, “Wealthy districts will benefit from a
disproportional about of state aid, while lower income districts
will have to continue to slash programs to make up for drastic
funding cuts. Or put simply – the rich will get richer and the
poor will get poorer.”
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