Frank Morrone's recent analysis of the school budget process, so meticulously outlined in a letter to the editor in The Westbury Times, (Thursday, May 17 edition) was both interesting and contradictory.

Interesting, because you certainly described the details of the unfair burden imposed on taxpayers at the dictates of a bureaucratic system bent on maintaining the status quo, and contradictory, because although you identified the problem, the solution that you set forth has nothing to do with the people responsible for creating this problem in the first place!

In fact, if one were to follow your suggested formula for solution: voting no for what I believe was a very conservative budget, one would be guilty of further victimizing the very people who are most seriously shafted by such policies-the people on fixed income and the children of this school district.

Voting down a reasonable budget doesn't necessarily translate into huge tax relief for the public. What it does is to deprive our children of the competitive edge by not providing them with the resources necessary to achieve a sound basic education and fulfill state mandates. Your own article made mention of the fact that although the budget was defeated twice last year, there was a 10 percent increase in the school tax rate-nearly four times the consumer price index.

You were quite clear in your assessment, and placed the blame squarely at the feet of our legislators, who allowed a lopsided and unfair system of funding to go on for years; a one-size-fits-all formula of allocating money regardless of what the respective needs are. You even urged readers to call their elected officials and ask them what they were doing about the problem, and not to vote them back in if their answers were not satisfactory. You were on to something here, and I would have added Governor George Pataki, (518) 474-1041, and the Director of the Budget, Carol Stone (518) 474-1041 to this list. However, you completely lost focus when you asked readers to send a message to the school board by not voting for the budget.

You should be aware of the consequences of failed school budgets- you should; you work in the system- a teacher at Westbury High School. You should know that it has devastating effects on the ability of school districts to cater to the needs of the children, destabilizes communities through its effects on real estate values, and adds to the reservoir of young people who are likely to victimize you and me when we fail to educate them.

You further hinted that you are aware of the unique characterization of Westbury School District-listed as the neediest district in the entire state. What you may not be aware of however, is that for budgetary allocation, the folks in Albany say that we are 20 percent richer than most school districts, when they conveniently use Old Westbury as part of the cohort in the wealth ratio classification. This is the type of politics that is being played with the taxpayers of this community.

The truth is, Mr. Morrone, Westbury School District should have received millions of dollars out of the $1.45 billion that the Regents have set aside for 2001-02 fiscal year to help districts meet the higher learning standards. However, because the funds are allocated on a political, rather than on a need basis, Westbury School District only received approximately $125,000. The district spends over $1.5 million for the English as a Second Language (ESL) program, but the total state and federal aid for ESL is only $300,000.

These are only some of the disparities and anomalies that exist in the system, and I am completely baffled as to why you would like to see this district continue on an austerity budget, knowing full well that the school board is only trying to work within the confines of a rotten system, and has shown considerable sensibility to the taxpayers of this community.

It is my disgust with this utterly unfair system-a system that has opened 38 new prisons since 1992, while neglecting the educational needs of the children, why I elected to be a plaintiff in the class action lawsuit filed by the ACLU against the state.

I urge you, Mr. Morrone, to join forces with those of us who are demanding a fair and equitable system of funding; Help us by using your knowledge to educate, not by telling half of the story, but the full story. You are fighting the right war, but you are aiming your bullets at the wrong target. Let us all train our demands on the real culprits, and not on those that are merely given a basket in which to fetch water.

Chester McGibbon

President, Westbury High School PTSA