NORWICH – Funding inequality among New York State school districts was thrust into the spotlight Friday when the Chenango County School Board Association gathered at the BOCES Norwich campus for its annual meeting.
The event featured keynote speaker Dr. Rick Timbs, executive director of the Statewide School Finance Consortium and retired district superintendent of the Erie Chautauqua-Cattaraugus BOCES in Western New York. According to Timbs, school finance inequality is a long tale of skewed apportions in New York that has ultimately led to wealthy districts getting more state funding while poorer districts like those in Chenango County struggle.
The 16 schools that encompass the DCMO BOCES were represented at the gathering, where Timbs’ message was clear: “There are districts that are nine times wealthier than you and even growing their programs while you struggle because the current state (school funding) formula doesn’t work,” he said. “It is a formula for disaster ... I see a ticking clock going backward. I see a time bomb toward collapsing school districts.”
Timbs’ presentation featured a number of statistical charts backing his claim that state aid cuts have drastically hurt low-wealth districts more so than high-wealth districts, and that the tax increases needed to compensate those losses are much greater among indigent and average districts. Adding fuel to the fire, said Timbs, are increasing pension and health care costs and the 2 percent tax levy increase enacted by state legislators nearly two years ago to close gaps in the state budget. He said school pension and health care costs alone will break 1 percent of a 2 percent tax levy increase for most local districts.
“To pay for all this, money is coming from one of three places: cuts in staff, cuts to programs, or from funding balances,” Timbs said.
Timbs also alluded to school districts that have already cut back on staff and programs and are likely to deplete reserve accounts to keep the doors open. Some are being forced to merge with other districts – a temporary fix to a long-term problem, he said. “It used to be that districts merged because they were small. Now, they’re merging because they’re broke. That’s not the way it should be.”
Aside from preparing a budget in advance, Timbs challenged school board members to gain local and state support to combat funding inequality. Recruiting advocates including parents, non-profit agencies, businesses and local legislators to support mandate relief for local school districts is critical for a school’s survival, he told attendees.
Chenango County School Board Association President Vicky Gregory, who also serves on the Unadilla Valley school board, said Timbs’ presentation was representative of what most local districts are facing. “One of our goals is to get a network of support going,” she said, pleading for community backing. “It’s important that parents and community get involved. It’s also important for local businesses to get involved because that’s part of our infrastructure.”
“Right now, we are relying on reserves to meet our budget,” added Board Association Vice President and nine-year Norwich school board veteran Perry Owen. “That’s not what reserves are there for ... We want parents to get angry because of schools’ lack of funding.”
The School Board Association will meet again Dec. 8 with state legislators in Greene to vie for funding equality, mandate relief and adjustments to the state’s school funding formula.
According to a statement from the DCMO Superintendents’ Association, “School children in the DCMO region are facing a financial and educational crisis. The current funding formula discriminates against our students, thereby undermining their right to a sound basic education.” The affiliation calls for legislators to “provide an equitable distribution of state aid for our area schools” and “provide fiscal and regulatory relief.”