Post by Chris_Wendt on Jun 19, 2013 11:26:08 GMT -5
I plan to write several pieces following yesterday’s “do-over” school budget votes on Long Island, as there are several distinct issues which, while interrelated by processes, regulations, and laws, each deserves a look, some analysis, and potentially “fixing”, although fixing any of them will be doubtful in the near term.
To do this correctly, it is necessary to perform a regression analysis to try to determine causality: root causes rather than proximate causes. The NY education funding process is not broken, it is working fine. It may seem to be broken, but if you feel that way, then I submit that your expectations for our school funding system is out of kilter with the true reality of it. I offer as proof the fact that all 124 Long Island School Districts now have voter-approved (passed) budgets for the coming school year. Schools = Funded!
I will concede that the NY education funding system is unfair, and our highest court, the Court of Appeals has agreed and declared it to be so through a succession of landmark lawsuits including Levittown, R.E.F.I.T, and CFE. But the Court was adamant that fairness and constitutionality are two different attributes, and the Court only deals in constitutionality, not in fairness; fairness is in the realm of the State Legislature and the Governor (“Levittown” decision). Even really, really unfair funding policies and practices do not equal unconstitutionality, especially if school districts are still able to deliver a “sound, basic education” to their students, despite “unfair” funding (“R.E.F.I.T” decision).
There is, of course, the portent of some operation of the NY education funding system creating an unconstitutional result, meaning a school district or system may not be able to provide a “sound, basic education” to all of its students because of the application of the State funding formula. The remedy in such a case (e.g. “CFE”) is for the Court to declare certain parts of the school funding system to be unconstitutional and to direct the Governor and Legislature to correct the breach. But as is turns out, the Court lacks the authority to re-write or amend the State Budget, or to force the State Legislature or Governor to spend money which the State does not have. So stalemate results, as in the case of CFE, where the Court originally “awarded” NY City Schools what appeared to be $21 Billion to correct constitutional deficiencies in State funding of The City School System. After Governor Pataki appealed and counter-sued, the actual amount was reduced to somewhere between $4 Billion and $7 Billion, and the disbursement of any of that money to The City became as nebulous as “The Lottery Money” has been to every school district in the State: it is there, it is called “Lottery Aid”, but it isn’t really anything extra at all.
So if you have been expecting state funding to be equal, you know that is not the way things work. If you have been expecting state funding to at least be fair, you probably have figured out that is not in the cards, either. When the Court pronounced that unfair funding was not unconstitutional funding, and, that fairness in funding is up to the Legislature to determine, school funding was at that moment forever memorialized as a political nuance, or, for sports enthusiasts, a political football. Hut! Hut!
Next installment: Voting on School Budgets
Regards,
Chris Wendt
To do this correctly, it is necessary to perform a regression analysis to try to determine causality: root causes rather than proximate causes. The NY education funding process is not broken, it is working fine. It may seem to be broken, but if you feel that way, then I submit that your expectations for our school funding system is out of kilter with the true reality of it. I offer as proof the fact that all 124 Long Island School Districts now have voter-approved (passed) budgets for the coming school year. Schools = Funded!
I will concede that the NY education funding system is unfair, and our highest court, the Court of Appeals has agreed and declared it to be so through a succession of landmark lawsuits including Levittown, R.E.F.I.T, and CFE. But the Court was adamant that fairness and constitutionality are two different attributes, and the Court only deals in constitutionality, not in fairness; fairness is in the realm of the State Legislature and the Governor (“Levittown” decision). Even really, really unfair funding policies and practices do not equal unconstitutionality, especially if school districts are still able to deliver a “sound, basic education” to their students, despite “unfair” funding (“R.E.F.I.T” decision).
There is, of course, the portent of some operation of the NY education funding system creating an unconstitutional result, meaning a school district or system may not be able to provide a “sound, basic education” to all of its students because of the application of the State funding formula. The remedy in such a case (e.g. “CFE”) is for the Court to declare certain parts of the school funding system to be unconstitutional and to direct the Governor and Legislature to correct the breach. But as is turns out, the Court lacks the authority to re-write or amend the State Budget, or to force the State Legislature or Governor to spend money which the State does not have. So stalemate results, as in the case of CFE, where the Court originally “awarded” NY City Schools what appeared to be $21 Billion to correct constitutional deficiencies in State funding of The City School System. After Governor Pataki appealed and counter-sued, the actual amount was reduced to somewhere between $4 Billion and $7 Billion, and the disbursement of any of that money to The City became as nebulous as “The Lottery Money” has been to every school district in the State: it is there, it is called “Lottery Aid”, but it isn’t really anything extra at all.
So if you have been expecting state funding to be equal, you know that is not the way things work. If you have been expecting state funding to at least be fair, you probably have figured out that is not in the cards, either. When the Court pronounced that unfair funding was not unconstitutional funding, and, that fairness in funding is up to the Legislature to determine, school funding was at that moment forever memorialized as a political nuance, or, for sports enthusiasts, a political football. Hut! Hut!
Next installment: Voting on School Budgets
Regards,
Chris Wendt