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Lawsuit for school funds: What we're fighting for
Tue, Nov 30, 2004
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Daniel G. Lowengard
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Regardless of race, poverty, or family circumstance, the
public school system should be able to equip every child
with the knowledge and skills to give him/her the
opportunity to be successful, productive citizens. There
is a fundamental belief that the educational system
should be the great equalizer.
Unfortunately, in the case of the Utica City School
District, the above statements are not true.
Currently, the district is spending $9,500 to educate
each student. If we spent only the state average of
$12,500 per student, we would be entitled to an
additional $3,000 per student, or approximately $27
million. This figure is only the state average and one
could argue that urban high-needs districts need more
than the state average in order to ensure a system that
is held accountable for the results of its students.
All students must leave the public school system
well-prepared to compete against any student regardless
of where they are educated.
In a recent conversation with John Kozol, the well-known
national author of "Savage Inequalities" and "Death at
an Early Age" -- books that dramatically look at
inadequate and unequal funding of the children in Boston
and New York City -- he urged me to give some thought to
the effect on the children and the community if the
funding system for public education in New York were
fair.
I would like to share those thoughts.
First, money could be used to hire new teachers. These
teachers would be hired to reduce class size across the
district. The class size in the elementary school could
be 18, in the middle school, 20, and in the high school,
22. In order to reduce class size to this level we would
need additional facilities. With this new aid we could
begin building a third middle school and reduce them to
700 each.
The second amount of money would be used to fully fund
Universal Pre-K. Currently, only half of our students
enter kindergarten with Pre-K program experience. It is
well known that an early intervention program before
students enter school pays dividends throughout the 12
years of public schooling. In addition to Universal
Pre-K for all 4-year-olds we would look at programs for
the 3-year-olds.
Third, our support services for children who come to
school with unmet social and emotional needs create
barriers for them to learn. Our Safe Schools/Healthy
Students Project would be expanded so that every school
would have the resources to meet all student needs. This
would include guidance counselors at elementary schools,
medical services, recreational services, before- and
after-school programming, single point of entry and
access into the social services system. Each of the 12
schools could become hubs of their individual
communities open from 7 a.m. until 8 p.m. to meet the
needs of the community.
Fourth, our operations and maintenance budget is
woefully under-funded. With this additional funding
there would be enough cleaners to keep the buildings
clean and enough maintenance personnel to keep our
buildings in good repair so that we would not wait until
things break. We would have an aggressive, preventive
maintenance program.
Fifth, through technology we would ensure that every
student at the high school would have a laptop in our
wireless environment. We would begin phasing in a
computer for every student at the middle schools and a
computer for every 2-3 students at the elementary
schools. We would ensure a wireless environment in all
of our schools so that students would have ready access
to the Internet and with proper safeguards online
instruction.
Sixth, we would ensure that staff development was done
properly so that our teachers would be the highest
trained professionals in the field. Currently, 50
percent of our staff has been hired over the past seven
years. It is critical that we invest in their lifelong
learning in order that they continue to meet the diverse
needs of our students. This would be met by purchasing
time outside the school day so that we would not detract
from our student/teacher contact time.
Seventh, contracts would be settled on time. An unfair
share of resources from the state has prevented this in
the past. It is important that our salaries remain
competitive in order to attract and keep the best and
brightest employees from across this area. All employees
would be guaranteed health benefits whether active or
retired but at a level the district could afford.
Finally, we would have a 2 percent fund balance. This is
the legal limit and for the first time the district
would have a fund balance so when adequate funding is
not available, we would not have to go back to the
taxpayers for huge increases.
What is amazing about this plan is that all of this
could be done and still reduce the current tax rate by
15 percent. Thereafter, local taxpayers should be
committed to small, incremental increases in their
taxes, as this is their fair share in supporting our
schools.
It is important that this community understand what it
is fighting for when it chose to sue the state for a
fair funding formula. As Koziol said in his recent
lecture for the New York State Council Of School
Superintendents (NYSCOSS), "America has failed to make
due on its promise that all children, regardless of
circumstance, would receive a free, quality education."
This is not wishful thinking or pure fantasy. This is
Utica's students' and community's fair share. We can
provide for every single student if we, as a community,
continue to speak with one voice.
Daniel G. Lowengard is superintendent of the Utica City
School District. |
