Central Boulevard students place their one-word rocks in a garden bed outside the school as a reminder of their goals this year.
Photo courtesy of Bethpage Union Free School District
Should local school districts participate in a regional effort to enhance “access for all students” and share services?
Nassau parents, school boards and local officials adamantly opposed being required to participate in regional planning for the county’s 56 school districts and 209,064 students in recent months.
They said a state Education Department’s regionalization initiative calling for regional planning threatened local control and could shift dollars and other resources from their districts to other districts.
The state Education Department recently denied that its plan required participation by local school districts
But the proposal’s language left many Nassau County school districts with the impression that the state plan did exactly that.
At a minimum, the state Education Department did a poor job of communicating its regionalization proposal. That is not a good sign from a department that oversees school districts, teachers, and students.
A committee of the state Board of Regents later agreed to change the language of the new regulation to confirm that regionalization would be voluntary and that districts would have the option of not participating in the planning process.
But the question remains: Should local school districts participate voluntarily? Should they join in regional planning efforts intended to save money and potentially bring students in low-performing districts closer to those in high-performing districts on their own accord?
School districts across Nassau County have already opted out of participating in the planning process, many citing concerns about the Education Department’s intent, the potential loss of control and resources or both.
Are the state’s assurances enough for school boards to feel secure that they will not lose any control?
If so, should the county’s many centers of educational excellence share with neighboring systems the cost of sports teams, advanced high school courses and other programs whenever individual districts cannot afford such programs on their own?
School district officials will be quick to point out that their districts already do this on their own.
So the question is whether they will do so on a more formal basis hosted by the state Education Department.
This is not an obvious answer to some doubters
Under the current system of funding public schools, higher-performing districts are usually higher-taxed districts, with property taxes borne by district residents covering most of the cost.
Why should some of the expertise paid for with my tax money go to children in another district, some might ask? Particularly, they might say, when the high-performing schools their children attend are closely tied to the value of their homes.
Plans developed by the regional discussions might also include the elephant in the room regarding public school funding—the large disparity in spending per pupil. In North Hempstead, this spending in school districts ranges from $30,000 to nearly $46,000.
Like baseball, the highest spending districts are not always the best. Just usually.
Following extensive litigation, the state has sought to at least meet the state Constitution’s requirement that all students receive a sound basic education and even rescue the gap in spending between school districts with Foundation Aid, which accounts for $25 billion of the $35 billion the state provides local school districts.
Many high-performing school districts on Long Island successfully fought last year to prevent cuts in Foundation Aid, mostly based on declines in school enrollment over the past 10 years.
But a recent study by the Rockefeller Institute, commissioned by the state after last year’s budget battles, recommended removing a policy of not cutting Foundation Aid budgets even in districts that have lost enrollment.
Higher-performing districts receive millions in state money, including Foundation Aid intended to ensure that lower-performing districts provide sound basic education and reduce the large disparity in spending between districts.
Doesn’t that carry some obligation to voluntarily aid lower-performing districts as a matter of fairness?
Nassau County’s economic future depends on an educated workforce, and regionalization would increase the number of graduates who can effectively fill local jobs.
And then there is the matter of practicing what you preach. Starting in kindergarten, schools regularly teach students the virtues of cooperation and working with others.
What would the lesson to students be if the districts they attend didn’t do the same?