Stop! You're Killing Me With Mandates

By Kenneth M. Ulric

President, Farmingdale Federation of Teachers

Many Long Island school districts - including Farmingdale - will be facing excruciatingly difficult budget choices this year. And in virtually every district the reason is the same: educational mandates imposed by the state without providing funding to local districts to implement the mandates.

When local districts have to pay for the state's mandates, they are forced to ask local taxpayers to pay more in property taxes that, unlike the progressive state income taxes, basically ignore the ability of the homeowner to pay. When the decision is made not to raise local taxes under these circumstances, the result is often deep cuts in educational programs that help our young people.

For years now, the state has increased the mandates on local school districts while steadily eroding its financial support for education. Over and over the state demands that we do more with less and that we pay for it ourselves. We get only 26 cents for every buck in taxes we send to Albany. Where is the other 74 cents going? Here in Farmingdale we are tired of being Albany's cash cow. The State of New York has abrogated its responsibility to Farmingdale's taxpayers, but, most importantly, to Farmingdale's children. It is time that we held state elected officials accountable.

School district administration and the board are desperately trying to find ways to cut costs and save money without hurting children. They are considering a plan to eliminate a number of positions through attrition. Such an action achieves some savings but it is only marginally better than the chaos caused by painful layoffs. Remember, fewer teachers always means less teaching for kids.

Long-term, however, the plan seems to focus on downsizing our staff. That might work in industry but it would be a huge mistake in the Farmingdale schools. We already run a lean school district, and every person in our system - custodians, secretaries, aides, teachers, and administrators - provides a vital service to the students. We can look at ways to control costs without setting our system and our students on a collision course with disaster.

State test results in Farmingdale have improved significantly over the past few years. For example, I am proud to report that the English regents given in January had 61 percent of this year's junior class scoring at the mastery level, way above state minimums. More than three-quarters of our special education students and 100 percent of our ESL students passed the exam. These outstanding results didn't happen by themselves. It took hard work on the part of the students, combined with the efforts of our dedicated teaching staff, supported by appropriate administration and with the necessary resources provided by the board for this to happen.

Reducing the number of teachers sets the stage for diminished student achievement as class sizes balloon and fewer teachers are stretched thinner over more students. Next thing you know, Farmingdale will be mentioned in one of Newsday's articles as having larger than average class sizes and lower than expected results on standardized tests. Perceptions of our district will start to change - and not for the better.

The value of our homes is directly tied to the reputation and effectiveness of our schools. It would be absurd at this juncture to increase class size and cut back programs, the inevitable result of downsizing. Farmingdale's parents and taxpayers cannot afford to be complacent in the face of this real threat to their children's education. In the classic movie On the Waterfront, Terry Molloy tells his brother, "You shoulda looked out for me, Charlie." In a few years, we don't want kids to say that we "shoulda" looked out for them.

The real solution to our school district budget problems lies in Albany. Taxpayers should contact their state representatives and demand that they put kids first. Tell them that we need to see a greater percentage of the money we send north returned to our own children's schools. (Contact us at 631-249-0773 and we will give you the names, addresses and phone numbers of state elected officials to contact.) The Farmingdale Federation of Teachers is committed to working cooperatively with the board of education, the school district administration, and the community at large to pressure our legislators in Albany to see to it that Farmingdale gets its fair share of the state education budget. But in the meantime, let's be certain that all of our current students are indeed "contenders."