Representatives of five area school districts got together recently to protest what educators say are a series of missteps by the state that are strangling public education.
Educators from South Colonie, Niskayuna, Schenectady, Schoharie and Cobleskill-Richmondville school districts met on Thursday, Oct. 18, at Sand Creek Middle School in Colonie to share their financial struggles. The districts represented a cross section of communities throughout the Capital District, from city to rural, to show the similarity of challenges facing communities.
The forum was part of The Alliance for Quality Education of New York’s Educate NY Now campaign.
“I’ve been all across the state … one thing we all have in common right now is that our schools are seeing tough times,” said Chad Radock, a coordinator for Educate NY Now, to the gathered educators. “You can bet the losses that you saw here in your district are statewide and major.”
Alliance representatives and educators primarily bemoaned the state’s gap elimination adjustment, which reduced state aid to most of the state’s school districts this year. Radock said state aid has been reduced $2.7 billion over the past three years.
All the educators shared their experiences of having to cut stuff members, negotiating difficult employee contracts and the decreasing opportunities for students in and out the classroom. Disdain was expressed for the state’s gap elimination adjustment (GEA) formula.
South Colonie Superintendent Jonathan Buhner said reducing state aid while imposing the tax cap is unfair to school districts.
“One or the other, most districts would have been able to adjust to,” Buhner said. “The two together over a sequence of multiple years (is a) recipe for disaster.”
Of the five districts, Schenectady is scheduled to lose the most aid in the 2012-13 school year at $7 million, a full 13 percent of the city district’s tax levy. Cobleskill-Richmondville is set to lose almost $3.2 million in state aid, but that represents 22 percent of the tax levy. Niskayuna is scheduled for a $3.4 million reduction and South Colonie for $3.7 million.
“I don’t think it is acceptable to defund public school education,” Buhner said. “It is not smart and it is not acceptable to me as a superintendent, as a taxpayer and as a person who lives in this state.”
Buhner agreed the tax cap will help control costs “over time,” but said defunding schools is different. Other district representatives at the forum shared his sentiment.
“The GEA has been bad news for school districts and their budgets,” said Niskayuna Central School District Assistant Superintendent for Business Matthew Bourgeois. “The gap elimination adjustment was the method by which our elected officials reduced state aid payments previously promised to school districts.”
Bourgeois said schools used state aid as a basis to craft budgets and he urged lawmakers to restore funding to provide the level of education a community values. He was one of the educators to protest not the spirit of the state tax cap, but the fact a supermajority vote is needed to override it.
“A democracy shouldn’t require a 60 percent approval for a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer,” Bourgeois said. “School districts have always had the responsibility to put forth a responsible budget that provides the programs and services that will promote student success.”
The new law’s provision is a contingency budget must include no tax increase puts schools between a rock and a hard place, he added.
Schenectady Board of Education President Cathy Lewis said keeping budget cuts away from children is only getting more difficult, with the district closing a middle school last year.
“We tried to keep program cuts out of the picture — keep cuts as far away from the young people as possible — but the nuances of some of what we have done is becoming more and more apparent,” Lewis said.
Over the last three school years, she said the district has eliminated around 110 positions and closed two schools. She said the school has a “bare bones budget” and cuts to programming is the only option left.
Lizzy Moore, a 14-year-old Cobleskill-Richmondville student, said extracurricular are her primary concern. Moore participates in three different music ensembles and credited the school for making her a better musician, which she said is important to her and classmates.
“Last year we were a bit concerned that some of our music programs might not be funded and that made a lot of my friends very, very scared,” Moore said. “Thankfully, our community and our school really supported us and we were able to keep our music program and maintain it.”
She also is a member of several clubs and school groups. Last May, she won the state public speaking contest; this year she moves on to compete at the national level. For academics, she is in two honors classes and is taking one class a year early.
“Because our school offers so many advanced and rigorous classes to its students … that lets each student reach their full potential in any subject that they choose,” Moore said.
Radock said rural and smaller city districts felt the initial burden, but it has now spread to affect most districts across the state. This was the fifth event forum the group has held statewide.
He said a “sound, basic education” is not being guaranteed for all students across the state, which is a constitutional guarantee. Now, he said it is up to parents, teachers, students and anyone concerned about education funding to pressure state representatives to restore aid to districts.
“When districts like Niskayuna get up here and start talking about they are being hurt and their schools have been traditionally one of the best places around then it’s time, it’s time for people to stand up,” Radock said.