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FROM THE SUNDAY GAZETTE, MARCH 27, 2011
 Editorial:
Fix state formula so poorest school districts get more
Upstate-downstate battle being lost up here...
Even if the state Legislature restores some of the $1.5 billion
in school aid Gov. Cuomo proposed cutting, this is shaping up as
one of the roughest budget years for school districts across the
state in recent memory. And as a story in Monday’s Gazette
indicated, it could be the roughest of all on poor rural
districts in places like Gloversville and Amsterdam, because the
degree to which a community’s income levels get factored into
the state’s foundation aid formula is limited. That hardly seems
fair.
The state’s Combined Wealth Ratio, used to determine a school
district’s aid level, attempts to reflect its relative wealth by
taking into account its residents’ income levels and property
values. But as the story revealed, the range used to calculate
income levels is limited on the low end, making some rural
districts seem richer than they really are. As a result, they
wind up being shortchanged when the money gets doled out because
the poorest districts are supposed to get the most.
Gloversville Enlarged School District Superintendent Robert
DeLilli says that if the formula had no artificial floor —
arbitrarily set at 40 percent below that of the average district
— his district, which he says has an actual Combined Wealth
Ratio fully 67 percent below average, would be getting enough
extra state aid that he wouldn’t have to lay off teachers, cut
the kindergarten program to half-day, suspend modified sports,
etc. His complaints were echoed by his counterpart at the
Amsterdam city school district, Thomas Perillo, who says his
district’s actual Combined Wealth Ratio should be 57 percent
below average.
The problem has been around for a long time, acknowledge upstate
legislators like Sen. Hugh Farley, and the problem is resistance
from downstate legislators who represent school districts with
higher average incomes and real estate values. In other words,
upstate-downstate politics are preventing the creation of a more
equitable aid distribution formula, one that favors the poorest
districts. Those districts may already be getting a higher
percentage of operating aid than their rich and middle-income
counterparts, but many of them wouldn’t survive without it and
are barely doing so with it.
It’s time for the state to balance the equation.
www.dailygazette.com,
Schenectady, NY |
