New York’s Unconstitutional Schools
12-1-04

New York’s Court of Appeals has ruled that our state’s formula for funding New York City schools is unconstitutional and has given the state legislature the task of creating a new one.

The Campaign for Fiscal Equity suggests that the formula recreation should be statewide because the other major cities suffer the same funding inequities. There are two false premises in that suggestion.

The first is that New York City’s perceived funding inequities are not unique when in fact they are. The new formula proposed by the CFE considers the cost of real estate in New York City as the primary reason they need more money. The schools themselves are more expensive, and teachers simply cannot afford to live in The Big Apple on the same salaries that upstate teachers enjoy. Therefore, they need more money for school buildings and higher salaries to attract and sustain better teachers. But other major city school districts of New York State currently receive significantly more funding than urban and suburban school districts even though they do not suffer from New York City’s endemic real estate scarcity and cost.

The second false premise is that a funding inequity is an educational inequity. The myth busters abound. The first is a strikingly similar case in Kansas City where a judge ordered an unprecedented increase in education spending. The Kansas City School District (that’s one district!) spent over a billion dollars to meet the court’s demand. Yet, there has been no appreciable increase in student performance. Some academic areas, in fact, actually witnessed a decrease.

Witness the fact that the average private school costs less while their students score higher on standardized tests. Compare public schools that spend more and you’ll find that their students score lower than in public schools that spend less. Compare between states and you’ll find Utah at or among the lowest in spending on education while always at the top in student performance. And let’s not forget home-schoolers either.

Given the fact that the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that school choice (including private and religious schools) is constitutional, state lawmakers should consider making it, as well as a home-schooling incentive, integral parts of the new formula.

Being a constitutional issue, we must consider a systemic approach. We simply cannot afford to replace a silver Band-Aid with one made of gold.
 

DRC