New York’s Education Deficit

By THE EDITORIAL BOARD

Gov. Andrew Cuomo and state legislative leaders are hammering out the $142 billion state budget for the 2013-14 fiscal year, which must be approved by April 1. It is crucial that more financing be allocated to public schools, both in upstate areas and in New York City.

Many poorer school districts, especially those upstate, are suffering from financial problems created by the property tax cap that was championed by Mr. Cuomo and imposed by Albany lawmakers in 2011. The problem in New York City, which has no tax cap, is different. Mr. Cuomo and legislators threatened to cut at least $240 million in state aid to the city because Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the teachers’ union failed to produce a new evaluation system for teachers by a January deadline. Surely, he must realize that hurting the schools will not lead to better outcomes for children, which is the purpose of creating rigorous teacher evaluation systems.

Smaller districts are in great need of more state aid. As predicted, the state law that caps the annual increase in property taxes at 2 percent or the inflation rate, unless 60 percent of the voters agree to more, has hit hardest on some of the poorest school districts. The current formula for allotting school aid is skewed to help districts of politically powerful legislators; it should be changed to spread more money to impoverished areas. Ultimately, lawmakers will also have to find a better source of revenue for schools than property taxes.

In a recent lawsuit, the New York State United Teachers and parents from several school districts offer some alarming details. Some districts have cut science and social studies teachers, dropped advanced placement classes and eliminated summer school programs. The Elmira City School District — where more than half of its 7,000 students are eligible for free and reduced-price lunches — failed to get 60 percent of voters to agree to a bigger tax increase. As a result of the vote and the loss of state aid, school leaders had to cut 126 of 1,220 positions, including 10 foreign language teachers and 12 reading teachers.

In negotiations over the state budget, lawmakers will have to deal with many important priorities, including a higher minimum wage for workers and more state aid for struggling cities and towns. Depriving poor communities and New York City of education funds would be particularly counterproductive.