Lawsuit for school funds: What we're fighting for

Tue, Nov 30, 2004



 

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 Koziol, 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.