Let it never be said that New York school districts don’t have fat to trim.
Facing budget pressure, Westchester County’s tiny North Salem school system is considering scrapping a generous perk: practically free tuition for the kids of employees who live outside the district’s boundaries.
Only 17 students take advantage of the program, but these are kids that North Salem has no responsibility whatsoever to educate — and with per-pupil expenses standing at $28,000, they clearly are a significant burden.
Plus, it’s just one more goodie for the district’s extremely well-paid teachers. In 2009, according to data at SeeThroughNY.net, 87 North Salem employees — more than half of the district’s full-time payroll — took home salaries of more than $100,000, and 42 employees topped $120,000. (And that doesn’t include pension and health-care benefits.)
District officials say that offering the perk costs the school very little because it hasn’t required the hiring of any new teachers. Yet Superintendent Kenneth Freeston admitted in March that he didn’t know whether the burden had been properly analyzed.
But that’s the wrong way to think of it. The question, rather, is how much North Salem’s well-off teachers would pay for a service the district has no obligation to provide.
This is one perk that needs to end.