A mother in the Riverhead, New York, School District wrote an opinion article about underinvestment in the small city’s public schools. Years ago, Governor Cuomo slapped a tax cap of 2% on all districts to prove his conservative credentials. In addition, Riverhead has a charter school siphoning off millions of dollars and now wants to expand. This week, voters must pass a bond issue to meet the basic needs of the schools.
Allyson Matwey writes:
Because of the 2% tax cap and the lack of fair foundation aid from our state, which owes our district more than $30 million, our schools have been starved of the money they need to provide our children with the sound, basic education to which they are entitled.
In addition, we are unique in that the charter school is in our town and costs us $7 million-plus per year. And now, they want to expand and “build from the ground up” to educate a few more students, which will cost us millions more. So, we are left with few options as we are faced with a crisis of overcrowded schools and buildings falling into disrepair. We must ask ourselves, as taxpayers of this community, will we continue to keep the promise of a sound basic education for our and our children’s futures? …
Two of our schools, Pulaski Street Elementary School and Riverhead High School, are already bursting at the seams. Both schools are presently at more than 100% capacity, with large class sizes and hallways that are difficult to pass through. These conditions are neither safe nor are they conducive to our children’s access to a sound, basic education. The Riverhead School Board has had research conducted by Western Suffolk BOCES that reveals that our enrollment will continue to climb over the next several years. So, what are we to do?
In order to address this overcrowding as well as the disrepair of some of our buildings’ facilities, the Riverhead Board of Education has put forward two bond propositions to provide us with an opportunity to uphold the promise of a sound, basic education to our children. …
Unless we are willing to make a small sacrifice for all of our children, split sessions at both Pulaski Street and the high school are not a threat but a reality. This could in turn affect sports, music, arts, and other extracurricular activities such as clubs. For the average assessed home in Riverhead valued at $43,000, Proposition 1 would cost only $16.41/month; Proposition No. 2 will cost only $3/month. Aren’t our children worth less than $20/month? And for those wondering about staffing costs, the district has demonstrated and reassured the taxpayers that they are steadfast on not breaching the 2% tax cap. Through creative financial planning such as retirement incentives and shared services the district appears to be in a good place to hire the additional staff that would be needed anyway.
The writer cites the many achievements of the children and urges local residents to pass the bond issue to meet the basic needs of the schools and their children.
The vote will be conducted on February 25. Every parent, grandparent, and taxpayer should invest in the children and vote YES.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Cortland City schools closed two elementary schools this year, in the wake of declining enrollment and loss of Foundation Aid since 2009. The district faces a $1,000,000 budget shortfall this year. Cuomo has failed to support schools due to his property tax cap and failure to provide fair Foundation Aid. Why should wealthy communities with a greater tax base be able to have better schools than less wealthy areas? It’s a travesty.
Impose a tax cap, and create a deficit. Then, you can have students spilling into the hall while school buildings disintegrate. New York should not emulate California’s mistakes.
Why is there always money to fund charter schools while the public schools face cuts? If we cannot fund the public school adequately, why should we fund a private entity to compete with it? Public schools are a far better, efficient use of tax dollars.
Another hundred million in grants to open new charter schools:
https://chalkbeat.org/posts/us/2020/02/21/city-fund-giving-100-million/
This really isn’t “markets”- the thing is designed to close public schools and replace them with charter schools.
If the charter school Netflix funds fails they’re never going to replace it with a public school- they will replace it with another charter school. It isn’t a competition at all. No matter the “results” of these schools, when they are done there will be far fewer public schools and many more charter schools. It cannot end any other way.
When ed reformers claim they aren’t getting enough federal funding to open new charter schools be aware they are omitting the hundreds of millions of dollars they get from billionaires. Perhaps they omit it because so many of them are employed by the same billionaires.
We should stop the flow of tax credits to and charitable donations from billionaires. They should have to pay taxes like everyone else. Why should we underwrite the destruction of public education while the wealthy get to avoid paying their fair share?
I think this is my favorite part of ed reform:
“The organization’s new website cites evidence that nonprofit charter schools in urban areas outperform district schools, that district students aren’t hurt academically by charter expansion”
They don’t even pretend to offer anything to public school students or families. They absolute BEST ed reform can offer is some studies showing ed reformers do not actually harm public school students. Some studies show harm! But they have a couple that show no harm.
“Hire me to run education- I vow to NOT HARM public school students while I pursue my ideological/career goals”
This is the actual pitch we’re supposed to buy.
Out here in the country there are no charter schools yet. There are some private institutions. Competition comes here I the form of one traditional private school (this year 150 years old), one religious school (about 25 years old), and a lot of homeschooling. With the block grant proposal, I suspect the shift to vouchers will mean there will never be charters here, but probably a growth in new private schools.
Truthfully, we are not really out in the country anymore. Nashville’s insane population expansion is creeping into the area (they are seeing 100 new people a day). After ten years of being over crowded, we have a new high school. One big subdivision will fill us again. The county north of us is swelling at a rate of one new school per year. Fields where I hauled hay as a young man now sprout rows of houses.
Here we are caught between the desire of some to hold on to the old ways of farming and community and the coming suburban juggernaut. Rising property values pressure families to consider the building of houses, which ultimately add to the potential for tax revenue, the source of most funding for public schools.
When I visit my cousins in Florida, I see a completely suburbanized area with charter schools and church schools. I hear the tales of the principal, hired by the new charter school, who moves over to the fancy subdivision after the change. My cousin, long retired from the classroom, still goes over to read to the kids where her great grand daughter goes to a Lutheran School.
Perhaps the lesson in all of this is that charter advocates have hit on the perfect plan. Every parent wants what is best for their child. Even if they want better public schools and support giving them more monetary help, their need for their own children to be in good classes surrounded by interested, motivated students is uppermost in their mind. So they end up choosing what is best for their child, and soon they are not in the community as a whole. Private schools have their own community, spread throughout the rest of the community as a sub-culture. Their view of public school is negative by virtue of their choice for their child. Perhaps they strongly support the public school, but their view of what is possible in their community makes them choose to be a part of a different culture.
This is why the using of public money to fund private visions of education is so pernicious. Those who are not involved in the public system do not live in the community of the school. Its activities are taking place outside their consciousness. They do not know that children are learning to live with each other when they go to school together. They do not understand why their neighbors believe differently.
We have so many problems in public schools. Presently, I am frustrated that half the students I teach cannot locate Germany on a map. It does not matter how many times we look at things that happened there as we begin to start World War II. Students leave my class and never think of the material again. But we are trying. Creating another place for some of the students to go will not teach any of my students where Germany is.
“private visions” — this gives a much better understanding of the chaos over simply saying “private schools.” The players in this game are not held to either reality or scholastic accountability.
Cuomo = Creep = The sort of Democrat who indirectly helped Trump get elected
To wit: Cuomo’s dimwitted attacks on teacher unions… and on and on….
One of the few good things I can say about Andrew Cuomo is that at least he is smart enough to be cagey about his e-mails.
If the Democrats truly want to win the White House in 2020, they ought to study what Cuomo has (and has not) done in New York State. I live in the red state portion of this blue state and I tell you that Andy boy is absolutely toxic up here.
Trump..Bloomberg….yeah, they’ve been New Yorkers. But what Governor Cuomo has done in the Empire State offers some real lessons.
A Democrat can get elected governor in NYS with a map like the one linked below. But, of course, not POTUS -no how, no way, at least not with the national electoral college system we have now. ( Not sure link will actually show the NYS map on here.)
https://www.gannett-cdn.com/presto/2018/11/09/PROC/e38bf788-3806-46f6-8cd8-9115daeaa09e-Screen_Shot_2018-11-09_at_12.30.18_PM.png?width=540&height=&fit=bounds&auto=webp
BTW the 2% tax cap in NYS often isn’t even 2% Good luck to the folks in Riverhead
Just for the record, speaking as a NJ resident, a 2% property tax cap is not a uniformly bad thing. If a state is bleeding residents due to out-of-hand prop-tax increase, something has to be done. However it’s going to be entirely inequitable unless accompanied by other measures. Every article & comment I read about the problem w/it in NYS is coupled w/complaints about insufficient or unfair state aid.
In NJ there has been pooling & redistribution of state revenue to poor school districts for decades. This caused spiraling increase in local taxes. (Corzine capped it at 4% in 2006). Our town is relatively wealthy, & typically receives only 4% of sch budget from state [compare Newark 80%]. Between ’92 and 2010, our prop tax levy doubled from 1% to 2% of home mkt value. Christie’s 2% cap halted the increase, and our town has kept them under cap since 2016: 1.5%, then 1.1%, last year zero. Our schsys is excellent [incl phenomenal SpEd pgm]; per pupil cost is $13k [state ave $20k], presumably due to comparatively low # poor, SpEd, ESL.
Recently, bill SR-2 tweaked the funding formula to correct some of the starker discrepancies in state aid [like 4% vs 80%] which were causing mutiny in many qtrs against the 2% cap. Most districts now get more; 30% get less. The “losers” mostly lost a modest amount; biggest chunks were from exorb-wealthy urbs like Bloomsbury [median income 30% above state ave med inc]. And now there’s discussion/ negotiation going on between state legisl & “biggest losers.”
Fair funding is a moving target & requires intent, feedback, negotiation. A prop-tax-inc cap may be reqd to keep the state competitive, but you can’t just slap it on w/o re-distributing funds according to need.
When population is in decline, we do not need the proliferation of more parasite schools, AKA charters, to drain the host until it collapses. Robbing Peter to pay Paul is bad education policy.
I am scratching my head over this Riverside charter. It’s the only one in Suffolk County (founded 2001). 500 kids, 83% minority, 75% free or reduced lunch. Why is it there? Other districts out there are also mezza-mezza/ below-average performers. Many of them also have big districts, too-big midschs/ hischs. The contemptuous sniffs on city-data.com Q&A seem to be splitting hairs; reading between the lines they maybe find too big a proportion of non-whites [44%]– but the ave of suffolk cty schs is 42%.
At 2018 community mtgs around authorizing them to add 9th & 10th grades, Riv Chtr’s director claimed the local SD just doesn’t know how to educate poor minority kids, pointing to 4 of 6 Riv CSD being designated “focus” schools. Thanks to NYS ridiculous test&punish the zip code policy [Riv CSD has 41% studs below poverty line].. “we’ve NEVER been on that list” … Riv CSD supt notes accountability measures do not apply unless you have at least 30 studs in the targeted subgroup per grade level; Riv Charter had only 45studs total per grade level when tested: not clear whether any subgroup in any grade level ever had 30 studs in it…. So arguably this charter could perform worse than the tradls w/o getting on a “focus” list.
But regardless of reason for its existence, Riv Charter is currently pulling 75% of Riv CSD per-pupil alloment– incl 2/3 of NYS per-pupil aid– into private hands for 384 of their 5400 students: close to 11%. 10% always seems to be the tilt point at which proportion of charter students begins to seriously pinch the whole district budget.
Riverhead, not Riverside.
A diverse district.