With New York facing multibillion-dollar deficits as far as the eye can see, the next governor and Legislature will most likely slash aid to the state’s school districts. If so, they must take bold action to meet our children’s needs — by allowing local school officials to reduce their costs and so avert disaster.
The Statewide School Finance Consortium’s analysis of the state’s school districts’ finances forecasts an imminent crisis for the poorest school districts, with the problem quickly spreading. Faced with mounting costs beyond their control, only huge property-tax hikes or dramatic action by the governor and Legislature will enable school districts to meet their mandate to provide a sound, basic education.
The consortium’s 257 school districts, especially the less wealthy districts Upstate, understand that significant cuts in state spending are coming during the next few years. Yet school-district pension costs will increase about 47 percent next year and more the following, and health-care costs have been rising as much as 16 percent a year.
Given the financial condition of most public school districts, Gov.-elect AndrewCuomo and the Legislature must recognize reality: Any further cuts in state aid to schools will trigger huge property-tax increases that will drive more businesses, jobs and people out of our state.
Our elected leaders must make some hard decisions to allow public schools to bring costs under control:
* Freeze wages for all public-school employees when state aid is frozen or reduced. Only the state government has the power to enact this measure; no individual district can impose a wage freeze.
* Cap the amount a school district can spend on health insurance and require employees to pay a larger share of their health-insurance costs. School districts can’t sustain costly contract provisions for salaries and benefits that were negotiated many years before and which they can’t reduce under the provisions of the so-called Triborough Amendment.
* Enact major pension reform by requiring public employees to contribute significantly more toward their pensions. The state requires school districts to participate in the employee and teachers retirement systems, even though they have no control over the cost of those benefits.
* Reduce the costs of special education by making New York regulations conform to federal guidelines, which have fewer mandates. These skyrocketing costs are beyond the control of local school districts. Only the state government has the power to make its requirements more reasonable and realistic.
The state can’t continuing passing onto local schools the the burden of its constitutionally mandated education responsibilities. Schools cut spending as much as they could during the economic downturn to keep property taxes from rising. Local property taxes simply can’t be raised more to meet school districts’ rising costs.
If they can’t provide enough state aid for schools to function, our elected leaders really have no alternative but to enact substantive cost-saving measures.
New York state can no longer pass the buck.
Rick Timbs is executive di rector of the Statewide School Finance Consortium.