Teachers' union representatives who are asking for more state aid for schools fail to understand that New York State is facing an economic crisis with a $9 billion budget deficit.

Public schools are adding new teachers and administrators with little apparent regard to skyrocketing school budgets. The state has increased school aid each year but it will not be able to keep supporting such high spending school districts.

Long Island public school budgets last year were the highest on record, driven by teachers' salaries which have been rising at more than twice the inflation rate. Many teachers now earn more than $100,000 a year.

Last year, a teacher in West Hempstead was paid $106,985 plus benefits for a ten-month school year. Based on the business sector work year, this is equivalent to a salary of $139,000.

School taxes will rise sharply again this year, with West Hempstead residents being hit with a whopping 9.30 percent increase. This means that school taxes on the average West Hempstead home will rise by $350.

In Franklin Square and Elmont, where 5 percent of the teachers are paid more than $88,000 a year, the school taxes will jump by at least $235 on the average home. That will completely wipe out the annual increase in Social Security benefits for most retirees.

George Rand