[Elwood Community Network commentary originally distributed 2/10/11]
On page A15 of [the February 10th] edition of Newsday, there is a column by Joye Brown that my wife made sure I read this morning. Ms. Brown writes an opinion column which is usually very interesting, and sometimes quite challenging, even though I seldom find myself in complete agreement with her.
But, given Governor Cuomo's current equivalent for school districts of General Sherman's scorched earth March to the Sea, across Georgia in 1864, her comments certainly merit everyone's consideration.
Today's column is titled "Further steps guv can take," and in the middle of her piece she quotes Lawrence Levy's take on Cuomo's March: "It's like the governor has put the tax cap horse before the mandate relief cart," said Lawrence Levy, dean of Hofstra University's Center for Suburban Studies.
Ms. Brown, herself, remarks rather wisely:
"As always under the current system, children will end up paying the highest price - with fewer teachers and fewer programs such as sports and the arts, which are essential to rounding out students' school years.
One way to change that equation is for Cuomo to go even farther: Offer incentives for districts to consolidate. Relieve even more state-driven mandates on school districts. And make it easier for schools to negotiate harder with teachers unions by removing obstacles that increase spending even as districts try to negotiate to pull it back."
And she is obviously not afraid to confront the big issue:
"...school districts need to rise to the challenge as well. As it is, more of them are negotiating contracts with teachers contributing co-payments to their health care costs. And some districts - and they are rare - are negotiating freezes in teacher salaries, while administrators voluntarily - again rare - are temporarily freezing their own salaries, too.
The goal should be to save money in ways that won't hurt children. And the best way to do that is by negotiating changes in existing teacher and administrator contracts."
And on the point of potential consolidation (which is opposed by many, in different districts including our own, and for numerous and sometimes contradictory reasons), she later mentions our own district in her column:
"More school districts could voluntarily combine backroom functions, or, as the Elwood School District suggested, at minimum begin talks to determine what other variations of combined school district functions would look like."
What I particularly appreciate in her above paragraph is that, unlike some reporters and some ill-informed bloggers, Ms. Brown apparently gets the logic of exploring these kinds of options (even if they should ultimately prove to be non-viable) as a sign of fiscal creativity and prudence, rather than as a sign of weakness.
In any event, the column is well worth reading, and if you no longer have the [February 10th] edition but are a Newsday subscriber, or even an Optonline customer, you can read Joye Brown's column at the following web page:
http://www.newsday.com/columnists/joye-brown/further-steps-guv-can-take-1.2676082
About Me
- Jerry Hannon
- After a thirty year career at Chase, serving as a Managing Director and Global Relationship Manager, I took early retirement in the summer of 2000, and that enabled me to become active in community, school district, and town activities. Since 2004, I have been a member of the Elwood School District's Citizens Finance/Budget Advisory Committee, and since 2005 I have been a member of its Audit Committee, and serve on three other committees of the district. During the 2006/07 school year I was President of the Elwood PTA Council, and I remain active in PTA activities. In the community I serve as EVP for Community Affairs of the Old Chester Hills Civic Association, and served the Town of Huntington as a member of its Comprehensive Plan Advisory Committee. For thirty five years, I have been a Director of the NY Council of the Navy League, and currently am Chair of its Audit Committee. A Vietnam Veteran, I retired as a Commander in the US Navy Reserve, and previously commanded two Naval Security Group reserve units.