The New NY

Unfortunately I can't take credit for the following post. It was part of an email exchange I had with another parent in the district. I agree fully with her interpretation of the agenda, so I thought I'd post it here (with permission):

I looked up our Governor-elect's opinion on education costs. On his website (http://www.andrewcuomo.com/issues_and_agenda) he has a downloadable booklet called "The New NY Agenda: A Plan for Action", in which he details a "5 point plan to build a New NY" Section two of this missive is entitled "Get Our Fiscal House in Order" and he has this to say about education:

"Make Education More Efficient

Since 2003-04, school aid has increased at more than twice the rate of inflation. The State’s fiscal crisis makes it impossible for this rate of increase to be sustained. As part of reining in the growth of spending on education, the State must ensure that school aid is targeted and fair. Districts with the greatest educational need and the least ability to locally fund education must not bear the full brunt of any school aid cuts.

Building aid and other forms of “reimbursable” aid must be scrutinized so that they do not distort a school district’s incentives to control costs. "

He goes on to discuss building aid and transportation aid reductions and then says this:

"The State can cushion the impact of slowing the rate of growth in school aid by eliminating

mandates that dramatically increase the cost of providing a quality education and by encouraging

smaller school districts to achieve efficiencies through shared services and consolidation."

To me that says, "I'm not going to cut aid to NYC, but if you're an affluent suburb (I'm looking at you Niskayuna), you can expect to see some stiff cuts down the pipeline. And by the way, while FDK isn't a mandate, it is a program that dramatically increases the cost of providing a quality education, so don't count on the $619,000, either."