Our Views: Even the playing field for children

The Island Now

Education is frequently mentioned by people on both sides of the political aisle as a solution to this country’s income inequality.

That may well be true, but at the moment public school education does just the opposite.

Public schools in this country spend more money on children of affluent families than they do on less affluent families, giving children of affluent families a leg up from an early age.

Take the neighboring Great Neck and Sewanhaka school districts.

The budgets approved by voters last week call for Great Neck to spend $34,455 per student and Sewanhaka to spend $22,759 per student – a difference of nearly $12,000. And at $22,759, Sewanhaka is actually above the state average.

Some people say the difference in spending does not make that much of a difference and that, in some cases, students in less affluent districts will do better than students from more affluent districts.

That is true, but that is in spite of the school district not because of the school district. And let someone try to persuade Great Neck residents trade places with those in Sewanhaka.

The reality is residents of the more affluent districts have voted with their feet, often choosing where to live based at least on part of the quality of the schools.

This is not to ignore the contributions made by residents serving on school boards and PTAs and other parent organizations. They do make a big difference.

But it is hard to argue that a $12,000 in spending per pupil isn’t even more important.

The main reason for the disparity between school districts is how they are financed — property taxes. The United States is one of the few countries in the world to finance its public schools with property taxes.

In practice this means that areas with higher priced homes and larger commercial districts have more money to spend than districts with lower priced homes and little or no commercial districts.

In Nassau County and other suburban areas, this advantage is exacerbated by a large number of relatively small school districts.

This is what is known as destiny by zip code.

It helps explain why schools in the United States are more segregated today by race and income today than 62 years ago – when the Supreme Court ruled that America’s schools must be integrated.

And the state-mandated tax cap has not helped this problem.

In fact, it has made it worse by requiring a 60 percent vote for school budgets that exceed the tax cap, making it more difficult for school districts to increase spending per student.

The tax cap has become the law that says neither a rich man nor a poor man may sleep on the park bench.

This is not just an issue of leveling the playing field. At a time when businesses in this country are struggling to find qualified people to fill existing jobs and the country competes in a global economy, the country’s economic future is tied to its ability to give a quality education to all our children.

There is no overnight solution to the disparity in spending between school districts.

Too many families have based their decision on where to live based on the quality of the local school district and the value of too many homes is based on that quality.

But there is a long-term solution — state aid.

A gradual, but steady increase in state aid directed to school districts that spend less per pupil would over time narrow the spending gap. This would mean either higher state taxes — or cuts in other state spending. We’ll leave that up to our elected officials.

But we can think of very few investments worth more than our kids. All of them.

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