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Each district pays their own taxes.
No, it’s shared.
How far away do you have live to get free bussing?
How far would you feel comfortable allowing your first-grader to walk to and from school?
How far would you feel comfortable allowing your first-grader to walk to and from school?
It should be whatever the public schools get, however given the shortage of funds here and everything is cut, it needs to be the minimium in the state law and not anymmore unless people are willing to pay
that being said, I dont think busing is the issue, its special services that is causing the huge deficit in East Ramapo
DY, it’s not shared. We vote on our district budget annually , with the star imposed 2% cap on property ta es
The law says that to qualify for free busing you have to live at least two miles ( up until high school ) or three miles for high school. So, the three million dollars does not have to go to busing as any less than 2 of 3 miles is not mandated. The three million was intended to restore phyd Ed and art
“that being said, I dont think busing is the issue, its special services that is causing the huge deficit in East Ramapo”
Wrong.
It is the funding formula that is the problem, it does not cover mandated services.
ZD, it can be whatever is legal and decided by the democratically elected board.
LC, of course the district’s are partially state funded. The problem is a faulty formula which doesn’t allocate enough to districts such as East Ramapo which have unique demographics.
The law also doesn’t mandate small class sizes in public schools or art and sports.
Do you want hundreds of 8 year old little public school children, living 1.9 miles or 2.9 miles from the public school, to have to walk across six lane streets and other dangerous streets if they don’t qualify for mandatory bussing? Should the public schools start charging hundreds of poor minority families for bussing they can’t afford (and can’t afford to take off from work for)?
Special services is mandated by law. And legally mandatory bussing cost more, for private school children, than special services.
Special services are mandated by law, the debate is how to administer those services
The board can decide whatever it wants to give as busing, however given the limited funds, it cannot give additional busing at the expensive of Art and Gym (Both are mandatory in NY)
Jose, you don’t care about how k or Hispanic kids, and. Using for less than two miles is NOT mandated.
LC, if you don’t advocate giving only the bare minimum to public schools, should you be accused of not caring about Jewish kids?
LC, Whether I care or not is irrelevant. The minorities care. And the minority public school parents won’t let the school board force their little 8 year old public schoolchildren to walk 1.9 miles or 2.9 miles in dangerous crosswalks and streets even if bussing isn’t mandated for 8 year old children living 1.9 or 2.9 miles from public school with parents who leave to work at 7:30.
This thread is running in circles. There is a shortage of $60 million and the state wont pay for it and the taxpayers wont pay for it and we are at a stalemate
I guess we’ll have to cut more non-mandatory public school classes and increase class sizes to 60 kids per teacher. Pre-K and kindergarten isn’t mandatory either, so it can be eliminated.
The NY Times has been critical of East Ramapo. Today it had a summary of the legislative sessions which closed on friday and no mention of the deal/ Certainly you would think they would mention it even in a negative way.
It does make me think it was really less than a band-aid and basically insignificiant
In East Ramapo, do the Frum and public school population live in (basically) different areas?
In East Ramapo, do the Frum and public school population live in (basically) different areas?
I think so, but not entirely
Monsey is mostly frum (But not all) Clarkstown is mostly not frum (I dont know if frum people live there)
Could the district lines be drawn in such way so that the burden of the public schools didn’t fall on the shoulders of the frum community?
No, because the neighboring non-Jewish school districts will not want to inherit the financial responsibility of paying for the schooling of thousands of poor minority immigrant public school students.
Could the district lines be drawn in such way so that the burden of the public schools didn’t fall on the shoulders of the frum community?
I suppose you could, however you could never get exact as people are transiant and what would you do about non frum in Monsey or frum in Clarkstown
Joseph, the frum districts don’t want it either.
ZD, so it wouldn’t be entirely, but the burden would be lessened.
DY, but the frum districts already have it. Now it would be a matter of implementing a boundary change. And there isn’t the political capital to make that happen.
ZD,
Clarkstown is a separate School District. You’ve excluded Spring Valley, which is mixed, Hillcrest, Chestnut Ridge, Pomona and some others as well.
A number of the actual Public Schools are right in the middle of mostly Frum areas, such as Lime Kiln School, Ramapo High, Kakiat, Grandview, Early Childhood Center, Hempstead Elementary.
Elmwood is right around Frum areas, but very much a mixed crowd living in the area, it is more in a commercial area, between neighborhoods.
Joseph, so you’re saying it’s geographically possible, but not politically?
NDG, you’re saying it’s not geographically possible?
Unless you make a Kiryat Joel, its not possible
And if somehow a non frum person moved into Kiryat Joel and wanted to go to Public School, the district would be required to pay for it
DY, I’m saying its legally possible and probably geographically doable to a large extent, but the non-frum don’t want to see the frum break off because the frum property taxpayers are now funding the non-Jewish public schools. So it would be politically very difficult to push through.
KJ did exactly that 20 years ago and it took three laws, in three different legislative years, including a court fight that went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court – where KJ lost but Governors Mario Cuomo and George Pataki and the legislature reintroduced new laws customized to pass the court rulings – till it finally stuck. But there it was a matter of KJ wishing to form its own breakaway school district and the neighboring districts happy to see them off their own rolls. In Ramapo the non-frum will not want to see the frum break off because the non-Jewish demographics (largely immigrants, many illegal and indigent) can’t fund their own public schools.
1) I don’t think you could easily carve up Spring Vally, where a very large portion of the Public School children live.
2) I don’t think it is smart to start districting that way, just think how else such districting might be used.
3) The second half of my comment was letting you know where the physical schools are located, not where the students live. i would guess that the overwhelming majority of students in most of those schools are bused some distance.
4) I was correcting the information that ZD provided.
“There is a shortage of $60 million and the state wont pay for it “
A large part relates to necessary Plant repair and upgrades.
The school board tried to get approval to issue a bond to fund this, yet the so called school activists got it voted down because they wanted to harm the School Board.
Another alternative is what just was done for Yonkers, which was just awarded $2 Billion in aid from the state. And that school district was in worse shape in every way, fiscally, scholastically and programmatically.
Another alternative is what just was done for Yonkers, which was just awarded $2 Billion in aid from the state. And that school district was in worse shape in every way, fiscally, scholastically and programmatically.
Its much easier politically to give money to fund public schools than to fund busing for Yeshivos, especially after the missteps from East Ramapo.
So for the critical pieces of the bill:
1: Monitors are now required by law, they are not going away.
2: Monitors will attend all board meetings, nothing will be private
3: The money goes directly to public school children, not a penny for Yeshivos or busing, and they only get the money to restore services 🙁
4: To get the money, the board needs to come up with a long term plan on how to break even
5: East Ramapo only gets the money when the Commissioner receives evidence of compliance
6: (The big one)
The board of education shall make adjustments to the proposed budget consistent with any recommendations made by the commissioner.
So the NY commissioner has veto power over the board of ed, with the added stick that if the board doesn’t follow through, they are breaking the law.
All in all, I understand why Hamodia is claiming a win for the Yeshivos (the monitors can’t veto, only recommend to the commissioner), but if you actually read it…..
P.S. It is certainly possible that Cuomo will veto the bill.
Mods – please allow the text only link to the bill language.
But, more to the fundamental focus of the opening post: As long as local schools are substantially funded by local taxes, rich districts are going to be well funded, poor districts are going to be poorly funded. And districts where majorities – or even substantial minorities – of voters are committed to private schools, of which frum Jews are but one example, majorities will vote their personal interests, which is the point of voting in the first place. This will result in low funding for the public schools, to the detriment of children (and their parents) who rely on public schools.
I see the only solution to this conundrum as state-wide funding for local schools. Transition to such a system would be politically difficult, if not impossible.
edited
If there would be statewide funding, there would also be statewide control
There is no way they would ever give state funding and local control meaning basically they are spending someone elses money. Not gonna happen in this lifetime
re zahavasdad’s comment about statewide funding: you make an excellent point – If there is state funding but local control, that would result in the squandering of “free money” by some irresponsible school boards. But there is already heavy state control over curriculum and other education policy, so the reduction in local control would not be that significant. And if state control results in better school policies, that may be good for everyone.
There is not as much state control as you think, Yes there is curriculum, but if there was state control they would control alot more.
Any “Subsidies” for private schools are not popular as it is and any accomodation would likley be elimiated like Busing for private schools (Dont think its not on the table) or “Mandated Service” they can force you to send your kid to public school. Bloomberg essentially did this, They fought everyone who tried to get some accomodation outside public schools even though initially it costed the city more money in legal fees than it was worth. But many parents were scared or unable to pay for legal fees and gave in
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