Message To The Governor: Give Our Schools And Kids Their Fair Share

An Op-Ed from Assemblyman Brian Curran (Lynbrook-21st AD)

March 8, 2013

It’s a common misconception around New York State that every resident of Nassau County is rich. Thanks to this unfounded belief, the Governor and a majority of the State Legislature feels it’s appropriate not to give Nassau County kids their "fair share" of state educational aid. Why? Because we are “too rich” and don’t need it. Boy, are they are wrong.

Year after year, Long Island schools are disadvantaged by a funding formula that is inherently biased against it. This funding formula was created to favor urban areas like New York City, Buffalo and Syracuse while forgetting about suburban counties like Nassau and Suffolk – two areas that educate approximately 18% of the state’s children. But, due to the unfair education formula, we receive only 12% of education aid back – a number which falls far short of what we are due.

Despite these facts, our kids and school districts consistently get cheated out of their fair share of education aid. This year is no different. Under Governor Cuomo's proposed Executive Budget for 2013-2014, New York City schools receive $129 per student in education aid; upstate schools receive $119 per student; but schools in Nassau and Suffolk County only receive $66 per student in aid. That’s a startling disparity.

Governor Cuomo has drastically cut the high-tax aid and building aid portions of the educational funding formula, directly affecting our schools. Nassau County was cut $19.6 million in high-tax aid this year under the proposed budget, representing a 35% reduction. Overall, Nassau and Suffolk counties suffer 74% of the statewide reduction in high-tax aid by Governor Cuomo. As Long Island homeowners pay the highest taxes in New York, my colleagues in the Legislature, from Nassau and Suffolk, and I have consistently worked to lessen the burden by providing highly-taxed working families and seniors with school tax relief.

By directly giving school districts much-needed funding in the form of high-tax and building aid, the impact of school taxes on our working families and seniors is lessened. This year we are met with great resistance.

The consequences of Governor Cuomo’s unfair proposal will be felt in homeowners’ wallets. This poor decision blatantly discriminates against our kids on the basis of their parents living on Long Island. Nothing shocks the conscience more. It’s typical Albany lunacy. Our working families and seniors shouldn’t have to pick up the expense for the accelerating cost of education statewide, especially while other regions are seeing proposed increases in their state school aid. Long Islanders deserve better.

I recently wrote to Governor Cuomo for his immediate and necessary restoration of funding cuts to our schools. The cuts in his proposal place undue hardships on school districts facing significant challenges and increased costs, especially after Hurricane Sandy. My request had one message: restore our school aid. I’ve yet to hear back from him.

Governor Cuomo’s current distribution of school aid is simply unacceptable. I believe that we need to fight together so that our voices will be heard and our children will get their fair share.

For example, the East Rockaway School District, which is undertaking massive efforts to rebuild post-Sandy after its schools were flooded, is busing children to a neighboring school district that can accommodate them and their teachers in addition to their own students. East Rockaway is in dire need for an increase in state funding to cope with the disaster’s increased costs. Residential properties and school buildings were both flooded and wiped out. This community needs as much assistance as possible. It’s sad and unfortunate that the Governor proposed cutting this district’s aid by $253,940, or a 4.4% decrease, from last year. While building aid was reduced, high-tax aid to this hardworking school district was pummeled down by 70%, from $575,562 last year to a mere $172,668.

Baldwin, another community that sustained massive flooding, wind damage and already suffers from a high-rate of commercial vacancies and closed businesses, received an embarrassingly small rise in their school aid to deal with the storm’s damage as well. The 0.56% increase in total school aid is not enough. While this district receives an increase as opposed to others that do not, the small change is negligible.

Oceanside, yet another community whose schools needed to close due to massive Sandy-related damage and flooding, was all over the news due to the superstorm’s utter destruction of the community. They, too, received a startling reduction in school aid – a decrease of almost $700,000. I don’t understand why the governor would choose to penalize school districts whose schools had to close because of the widespread flooding and damage.

While West Hempstead was spared the amount of devastation seen in these three other communities within my Assembly District, the school district also faces difficult times with a 3.93% proposed reduction in state aid, or a lessening of about $364,141.

There’s no question that this must be fixed by the governor. All of Nassau County’s children deserve the same opportunities and funds as schoolchildren in other parts of New York State. There is no acceptable rationale why students in New York City, Buffalo or Middletown receive more school funding than we do. Picking on Long Island's schools and students is wrong. A disproportionate share of state education funds comes from Long Island – and the amount by Albany returned continues to get smaller and smaller every year. This can’t continue.

I hope you can join me in this fight. I’ve never been shy about standing up for what is right, and you shouldn’t be either. Call Governor Cuomo at 518-474-8390 or go online to http://bit.ly/LISchools and sign our petition to the Governor. Tell him you stand with me, Senators Skelos and Fuschillo. Long Island deserves their fair share of education aid – nothing more, nothing less; just our fair share.

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