Photo by Margaux Nissen Gray of a new tree in the West 70’s.
April 18, 2016 Weather: Partly cloudy, with a high of 79 degrees.
Notices:
A Shakespearean sonnet slam and dozens of other local events on our calendar.
Reminder: Helen Rosenthal holds a Town Hall on Monday; several city agencies will send reps to answer your questions.
The Board of Elections has changed some voting locations. Look up where you should vote on Tuesday here.
Tip Top Shoes is partnering with Women in Need for a fundraiser. More here.
News:
A 29-year-old man fell from the 10th floor of the Days Inn on 94th street on Saturday afternoon. Police were still investigating what happened. “The man, who was a guest at the hotel, was taken to Mount Sinai St. Luke’s hospital and was in critical condition.”
A man was attacked on Thursday at a homeless shelter on 83rd street: “On Thursday, a man staying at the Skyway Men’s Shelter on the Upper West Side was brutally attacked during an argument. Mike Oshinowo, 32, smashed a glass bottle over his roommate’s head and slashed the victim with a razor blade, leaving him with a deep cut under the right eye, cops said.”
A pastor believes he has the right to the church at 361 Central Park West, not the developers who want to turn it into condos. “But Starks knows a higher power is on his side, even in the secular arena of Manhattan real estate. ‘361 is a promise God made me. That building means to me what Israel means to the Jews,” he says. ‘How are you going to turn God’s house into condos.’
While pundits crow over how “progressive” the state budget was this year given the increase in the minimum wage, spending on public schools continues to favor the wealthy. The state steered most of its new school spending to wealthier districts, according to the nonpartisan Citizens Budget Commission. “The result of allocating so much aid outside the Foundation Aid formula is that more affluent districts benefit proportionately more than the neediest districts. School aid per pupil increases 10.4 percent for the most affluent 10 percent of districts, but only 7.3 percent for the neediest districts.”
Has it ever occurred to the Citizens Budget Commission that the reason schools in wealthier districts receive more state funds is because the parents who live in these wealthier districts pay more in taxes?
Property taxes are local. State funds are separate, and in many states are used to help narrow the gap between wealthy and poor districts. This was a decision by state politicians, not a result of discrepancies in property taxes. WSR
That school budget item is very misleading. I guess everyone can click through to the link, but the increases in real dollars still are targeted to the poorer districts.
The reason that the percentages work out the way they do is because the schools in the neediest areas receive $16,779 per pupil in aid and the wealthiest only receive $3,383 in aid. In the current year, the wealthiest schools’ funding increases only $319, and in the poorest areas increases $1,138.
So, even though the schools in the neediest areas get increases that are three times larger, their base is so large that it’s harder to move the needle on a percentage basis.
And yet, why is the state sending money to wealthy districts that have enormous property tax bases, and increasing that aid at a faster rate than aid to poorer districts? Overall, the per-pupil funding remains extremely disproportionate.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/06/business/a-rich-childs-edge-in-public-education.html
Is the answer to send NO state money to “wealthy” districts, even if its only a tiny percentage received by “poorer” districts, despite the money being derived from ALL state citizens?
Is the answer to “confiscate” the property taxes of wealthy districts to equalize spending?
If so, the end result would likely be spreading the poor education around, rather than elevating the overall level.
Money itself is no answer, as can be proven by the failing NYC system, and monumental increasing budgets…. from NYCDE:
“The Department of Education has an annual budget of nearly $25 billion for its 1.1 million students.[2][16] According to Census Data, New York spends $19,076 each year per student,[17] more than any other state[18] compared to the national average of $10,560.”
Parents accept huge property taxes, and home costs, specifically to ensure a good public school education for their kids in the suburbs. Its not the higher per kid spending, but the local control of education AND highly motivated parents/kids/teachers that result in success.
Funding matters a great deal. Scarsdale spent $26,742 per pupil in 2012: http://www.today.com/money/richest-school-districts-america-819618
It’s probably well over $28k now. Of course it matters.
Funding matters, of course, but is clearly no guarantee. The effect of money on academic success is definitely not settled science:
http://washington.cbslocal.com/2014/04/07/study-no-link-between-school-spending-student-achievement/
If funding was the primary driver of success, then NYC public schools, which have the highest public school funding in the US (19,818 per pupil versus a national average of 10,700), should be among the best… clearly not the case. https://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2015/cb15-98.html
The argument that the NYC student population is not “average” is a good one, ie, income, bad neighborhoods, parental involvement issues, etc. However, adding money to a bloated top heavy bureaucratic machine seemingly as interested in self perpetuation as in education may not be the answer.
Charter schools, vouchers for families to move to “better” neighborhoods…all worth trying, But it should be done in a controlled, results based system, a la Bloomberg.
Honestly, I’m not clear where you’re coming from.
The money the state allocates to schools doesn’t come from magic. It comes primarily from taxes in wealthier areas, hits Albany, and then is allocated to needier areas. It’s very much the opposite of what is implied by the text above. Yes, a small fraction of the state tax money allocated for schools is returned to the wealthier communities, but that doesn’t seem like a bad thing. The structure is clearly highly, highly progressive.
Again, the wealthiest areas saw an increase in funding on $319 per pupil, and the neediest areas increased $1,138. I think that’s the clearest articulation of what’s going on here.
I’d say the fact that schools are funded with local property taxes creates an unequal system, and the state isn’t doing enough to equalize funding. If there’s “extra” funding available it should go to poorer schools. Why should any of it go to schools where teachers make $120,000, class sizes are 20-22 at max, and the facilities are already outstanding?
Also, “facilities are outstanding” because in the wealthier schools the parents contribute more money.
What school has 20-22 students per class?? Please let me know, I would love to send my kids there. My kids are at one of the best public schools on the uws and have only had such a small class in kindergarten.
I mean, it’s never going to be equal. Some communities choose higher property taxes to fund better schools. Other communities don’t. Some communities bring in industry, others prefer to remain residential.
There’s choice in the system that shouldn’t be whitewashed by payoffs to the communities that deliberately choose low property tax constructs.
I think we just disagree about the role of state aid. I don’t agree that it should become sort of a welfare system only for have-not schools. That’s the easiest way to get it killed by those communities that don’t benefit at all.
well said.
“spending on public schools continues to favor the wealthy”
This “headline” is disengenous at best and HIGHLY misleading.
Going to the source data, it is true that the lowest decile (neediest) group got 7.3% increase, while the wealthiest got 10.4%.
But, drilling down, the needeiest districts went from 15,641 per pupil to 16,779…an increase of 1138
the wealthiest districts went from 3,064 to 3,383. for an increase of 319.
so even though the wealthiest districts got 3% more, the needy districts got nearly 400% greater actual dollars!!!
Overall, the needy districts got 500% more per student than the wealthy districts…hardly outrageous “favoritism:
On another topic, I had no idea there was a homeless shelter on 83rd Street- I looked it up and it is just in from the corner of 83 and Columbus. I’m sure I will incur the wrath of many on this site for saying this, but I don’t think having a homeless shelter across the street from the pre-k/ kindergarten playground and dismissal area of a public school is a really good idea.
Because all people without homes are a danger to themselves and society. #checkyourprivilege
“#checkyourprivilege”
How about you check your self-righteous, SJW (“Social Justice Warrior”), virtue-signalling condescension? The stranglehold that ethnomasochist, Cultural Marxist PC sanctimony has held on this nation and most of the West is beginning to break.
Yes, it increasingly appears as if the treacherous, lubricious, thoroughly corrupt Hillary Clinton, is not only nearly-certain to be the nominee of a long-degenerated, morally bankrupt Democratic Party but will also very likely go on to win the Presidency in November. Nonetheless, the mainly working-class, mainly white masses, represented by the overwhelming crowds seen at Trump rallies, are not going away anytime soon. They will not continue to apologize for breathing (and being the backbone of Western civilization) while being trampled-upon and thrown to the sharks much longer. One way or another, the peasants standing at the gates with their pitchforks, to paraphrase a famous line of Patrick J. Buchanan, will revolt. It is only a matter of time.
I have no problem with the NYCHA building that is adjacent to the school. I think there is a big difference between this and a homeless shelter.
That’s not 83 and Columbus. Is that what they are referring to? I agree that building is absolutely not a problem and many of the kids who live there go to the school. A homeless shelter is a different story. It’s a fact that many people living in shelters are “a danger to society”, in fact there is another article in this wsr about violence that just occurred in one such place.
Amen!
What bugs me about school funding in general is that we give lip-service to how much we value children, but we put all kinds of priorities above school funding. The children are truly our future. If we want knowledgeable adults running the world in the future, we need to make all schools our top priority.