NYC SCHOOLS GET THE SHAFT

NYC Public Schools have been getting the shaft for decades.

ELLIS HENICAN'S ARTICLE IS COMPELLING

------------------------------------------------ NEW YORK NEWSDAY

No change for the shortchanged

Ellis Henican

February 16, 2005

Cutting-edge computers in Great Neck.

College-level science labs in Scarsdale.

World-clbutt art-and-music programs in Saratoga Springs.

And what has Albany's sweet largesse delivered to the public-school children of South Jamaica, Washington Heights and East New York?

Oh, that's easy. Crowded homerooms, busted toilets and teachers so inexperienced they hardly know what to say after "Good morning, clbutt."

Welcome to the Upside-Down World of Public-School Funding in New York. The districts least in need of help get lavished with state money, while the poorer districts, in New York City especially, get squeezed year after year.

And God only knows when this harsh system will be reformed. God, the governor, the Legislature and the courts.

The chief villain here is easy enough to identify. It's George Pataki. Given the governor's cynical foot-dragging on school-funding reform, it's surprising the five-borough dropout rate isn't even more hideous than it is.

"Over the past 24 hours, people have been asking me, 'So what do you think of the latest court decision?'" Michael Rebell was saying yesterday. Director and chief legal strategist at the Campaign for Fiscal Equity, Rebell has been leading the money fight on behalf of city schoolchildren since 1993. He's learned to be skeptical of Pataki.

Late Monday, State Supreme Court Justice Leland DeGrbutte of Manhattan ordered a $5.6-billion funding increase for city schools. This, by my count, would be the fifth court ruling to call the state's current school-aid formula illegal. The logic of all these rulings is pretty straightforward: The New York State Consbreastution guarantees the city's 1.1 million schoolchildren a "basic sound education," which they aren't getting now.

"I was ecstatic," Rebell said. "But 15 minutes later, I heard the governor had already put out a press release saying he'd appeal. That kept me up all night. He's just delaying the inevitable. The Court of Appeals has spoken. The governor's arguments have all been rejected. They were supposed to change the formula by July 30 of last year. They ought to do it now. It's almost a moral issue at this point."

If Pataki persists, the schoolkids will have to wait perhaps another year.

Court rulings are one thing, even strongly worded court rulings issued over and over again. Real life is another. And even if Pataki keeps losing in court, which seems almost certain at this point, no one knows for certain who will pay the $5.6-billion overdue bill - or another $9 billion the city has been shorted by Albany for rebuilding projects in the schools.

The state alone? Or, as Albany is sure to demand, with help from City Hall?

The school-aid activists, like Rebell, say the city may have to cover some of the payback costs, perhaps 18 or 20 percent. City Councilman Robert Jackson of Upper Manhattan, who's been on this issue since the start, says some kind of city-state split is almost inevitable.

"They've been shortchanging us for decades," Jackson said. "But as a member of the City Council, I'll be the first one to stand up and say, 'We have to pay part of it.'"

That kind of talk is sending shudders through City Hall.

When he first ran for office four years ago, Mike Bloomberg did something no battle-scarred politician ever would. He asked voters to judge him on his handling of the schools.

He's made progress so far, disbanding the old Board of Education, taking direct mayoral responsibility for the schools, nuking patronage-fat community school boards and inching away from social promotion.

But could the city soon be cheering a wonderful legal victory for its fair share - and then be saddled with a big chunk of the bill?

"That would be ironic, like something out of 'Alice in Wonderland,'" the mayor's communication director, Bill Cunningham, said last night. "Being the victim of the state's neglect and then required to pay part of the penalty imposed by the courts on the state."

The money would have to come - painfully, no doubt - from other parts of the city budget.

"Meals for the elderly?" Cunningham asked. "Senior centers? After-school time for the kids? A new clbutt of police recruits? It'll come out of every agency except education. I don't think the City Council down the hall will want to make those kinds of cuts.

"It would be devastating," the mayor's man said.

Too bad the city kids don't have those fancy computers from Albany. Maybe they could help figure something out.

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