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School districts ante up to sue for funds Albany, Cohoes, Glens Falls pledge money to support challenge to state formula
By
RICK KARLIN, Staff writer A lawsuit by a coalition of small-city school districts seeking more money from the state is gaining traction, with school boards from Erie County to the Capital Region agreeing to sign on to the case. During the past month, school boards in Albany, Cohoes and Glens Falls have agreed to kick in $3,000 each to help the lawsuit get started. They are joining districts in cities such as Beacon, Binghamton, and Tonawanda in what could be a long legal battle to have the state contribute more money to needy school districts. Momentum for such a lawsuit picked up after a June 2003 decision by the state Court of Appeals upholding a similar suit on behalf of the 1.1 million-student New York City school system. In that case, brought by the Campaign for Fiscal Equity, a special three-person panel is expected by the end of November to come up with a court-ordered plan for how the state would get more money to New York City schools. "We may have a better case than CFE," said Robert Biggerstaff, lawyer for the state Association of Small City School Districts, who is organizing the planned suit. That's because many upstate cities have suffered serious economic decline in recent years, with shrinking populations and the loss of industry, explained Biggerstaff. As a result, he said, small-city residents pay disproportionately higher taxes to support their schools -- about $21 per $1,000 of their homes' value, compared with a statewide average of $18. New York City schools by contrast are funded largely from the city's overall budget rather than a separate property tax. Albany school board members said they share the belief that small cities are frequently shortchanged by the state. "We get less than our fair share," said Albany board member Sue Kushner. Fellow board member Pat Fahy explained that Albany gets less than a third of its budget from the state, compared with some 40 percent for New York City. Moreover, board members like Fahy, Kushner and others have long complained that because state aid is based largely on the property wealth of a community, cities get a bad deal. Albany may have more overall property value than, say Clifton Park, or Bethlehem, but it has a higher proportion of impoverished students. Kushner, who is an attorney, cautioned that a small-cities lawsuit could take time to wind through the court system, and there would be differences from the CFE case, which focused on one, albeit large, district. The CFE case was filed in 1993 and, with appeals, took a decade to be finally decided by the state's highest court. Even after that, state leaders failed to obey a court order to resolve the aid issue by this summer, and the lower court now handling the case put the issue in the hands of a special master. Furthermore, small cities may eventually want to seek financial support from foundations, or philanthropies to help pay for the case as it proceeds. Rick Karlin can be reached at 454-5758 or by e-mail at rkarlin@timesunion.com. |
Albany
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