A recent editorial regarding efforts by the Herricks School District to exclude illegal students suggests that parents who engage in dishonest tactics to enroll their children in schools they should not be attending are to be congratulated for their “involvement” and ingenuity. As a taxpayer in the district, I could not disagree more.
The assertion that some 39 illegal students in the district would not have much of an impact is so naïve as to be laughable. The per pupil cost of education in the Herricks District is over $21,000.00 per year. The math is simple. That amounts to over $800,000 per school year; a significant amount of money that would have a profound impact on any school budget.
The Education Law of New York provides that a school district is required to provide a tuition-free education only to students who are residents of that district. Enrolling in a public school by virtue of subterfuge and patently false information is more than just wrong, it is illegal. While the writer clearly finds the use of the word distasteful it is, in fact, accurate.
I agree that public schools fail many students, often in poorer neighborhoods. But the solution is not to require the taxpayers of this or any other district to bear the cost of educating not only the students entitled to attend its schools, but everyone who decides to enroll, without question to eligibility.
Straining the resources of well performing schools does nothing to improve the performance of the others.
Ann Giordano
Williston Park
