In the Feb 9th edition of Newsday, starting with a front page headline that says "Cuomo to LI Schools: You've Got the Money," and going on to an article on page A3 titled "Governor: Dip into reserves," Newsday covers the message from the Governor and his staff, which basically dismisses the concerns of school districts across Long Island at the likely impact of the level of cuts to State aid proposed by Gov. Cuomo.
The central message is found in the second paragraph of the Newsday article, and continued in the fourth paragraph:
"According to data compiled by the administration and obtained by Newsday, 74 percent of school districts statewide - and about 85 percent on Long Island - could use reserve funds or unused federal stimulus money to deal with the cuts."
"Besides proposing the first overall state spending cut in 15 years, Cuomo also wants to reduce school aid $1.5 billion - an average 9 percent statewide and 11 percent on Long Island. He has suggested that, in most cases, districts have enough available money to offset his cuts without laying off teachers or eliminating programs."
Now, think about this concept as you would about the economic security of your own family.
Most families have put away some money "for a rainy day." The possible uses, in your mind, might be an emergency repair to your roof after a massive snow storm, or the collapse of your septic system, or unanticipated major repairs to your eight year old car, or massive co-pays for medical needs for a member of your family who suffers a serious accident, or the possible loss of income from your job due to problems your employer might be having from this three year old recession, and on and on and on. You know that the only certainty of life is its uncertainty, and the prudent household must be prepared for those kinds of events.
But, when you use those funds, hopefully partially and not entirely, they are gone. They cannot be magically replaced as if your bank account was a self-replenishing wishing well. Therefore, what is used today is not available next year, or the year after, until such time as your own economic situation allows you to save additional funds for that rainy day in 2013 or 2014.
For Gov. Cuomo or his staff to be playing around, by this kind of dialogue and headline-making, with concepts of using reserve funds to replace State aid cuts is, in my opinion, dangerously irresponsible. And for Newsday to prepare a chart, that indicates whether a particular school district "Has enough reserve and stimulus funds to cover proposed cut," it is similarly absurd.
In the next to last paragraph of the Newsday article, a member of the Governor's staff tries to deflect criticism of this kind of gamesmanship and extremist debating thrusts and parries:
"Noting that annual dramatic aid increases were not sustainable, Cuomo spokesman Josh Vlasto countered: "We're not saying that the schools should use all this money to offset the cuts. We're just trying to give an appropriate context."
Oh goody! Let's throw some intellectual Molotov Cocktails and see what kind of damage we can do to the credibility of school districts, and what attention we can divert from Albany.
By the way, in the chart which Newsday created, there is another bit of absurdity. They note in the preamble to the chart that "The average superintendent salary in the state if $165,577;" they then go on to show a column indicating whether the salary of each LI district's superintendent does, or does not, exceed the state average.
One of my daughters went to college in Fredonia, in Chautauqua County, about 45 miles southwest of Buffalo. I could buy a beautiful large home, on ten or more acres in the surrounding communities, for less than you or I would need to spend on a small cottage, on a postage-stamp sized property, on Long Island. And if you go over to Allegany County, which some even more impoverished areas, I'll bet you could do even better.
In other words, it is ridiculous, and even stupid, to compare salaries or costs on Long Island to an average which includes upstate or Western New York. Whether you are a retail manager, or a mechanic, or a banker, or a lawyer, or a teacher, or a school superintendent, you would not accept (and not even be able to accept) the same salary on Long Island as you would in most of New York State. We should expect Newsday to do better than either create, or pass along, that kind of column.
This is turning out to be a very sad season for intelligent dialogue.
For those of you who are either Newsday subscribers, or Optonline customers, you can read the entire Newsday story at:
http://www.newsday.com/long-island/politics/cuomo-li-schools-have-millions-in-reserve-1.2671860?p=
Jerry Hannon
The central message is found in the second paragraph of the Newsday article, and continued in the fourth paragraph:
"According to data compiled by the administration and obtained by Newsday, 74 percent of school districts statewide - and about 85 percent on Long Island - could use reserve funds or unused federal stimulus money to deal with the cuts."
"Besides proposing the first overall state spending cut in 15 years, Cuomo also wants to reduce school aid $1.5 billion - an average 9 percent statewide and 11 percent on Long Island. He has suggested that, in most cases, districts have enough available money to offset his cuts without laying off teachers or eliminating programs."
Now, think about this concept as you would about the economic security of your own family.
Most families have put away some money "for a rainy day." The possible uses, in your mind, might be an emergency repair to your roof after a massive snow storm, or the collapse of your septic system, or unanticipated major repairs to your eight year old car, or massive co-pays for medical needs for a member of your family who suffers a serious accident, or the possible loss of income from your job due to problems your employer might be having from this three year old recession, and on and on and on. You know that the only certainty of life is its uncertainty, and the prudent household must be prepared for those kinds of events.
But, when you use those funds, hopefully partially and not entirely, they are gone. They cannot be magically replaced as if your bank account was a self-replenishing wishing well. Therefore, what is used today is not available next year, or the year after, until such time as your own economic situation allows you to save additional funds for that rainy day in 2013 or 2014.
For Gov. Cuomo or his staff to be playing around, by this kind of dialogue and headline-making, with concepts of using reserve funds to replace State aid cuts is, in my opinion, dangerously irresponsible. And for Newsday to prepare a chart, that indicates whether a particular school district "Has enough reserve and stimulus funds to cover proposed cut," it is similarly absurd.
In the next to last paragraph of the Newsday article, a member of the Governor's staff tries to deflect criticism of this kind of gamesmanship and extremist debating thrusts and parries:
"Noting that annual dramatic aid increases were not sustainable, Cuomo spokesman Josh Vlasto countered: "We're not saying that the schools should use all this money to offset the cuts. We're just trying to give an appropriate context."
Oh goody! Let's throw some intellectual Molotov Cocktails and see what kind of damage we can do to the credibility of school districts, and what attention we can divert from Albany.
By the way, in the chart which Newsday created, there is another bit of absurdity. They note in the preamble to the chart that "The average superintendent salary in the state if $165,577;" they then go on to show a column indicating whether the salary of each LI district's superintendent does, or does not, exceed the state average.
One of my daughters went to college in Fredonia, in Chautauqua County, about 45 miles southwest of Buffalo. I could buy a beautiful large home, on ten or more acres in the surrounding communities, for less than you or I would need to spend on a small cottage, on a postage-stamp sized property, on Long Island. And if you go over to Allegany County, which some even more impoverished areas, I'll bet you could do even better.
In other words, it is ridiculous, and even stupid, to compare salaries or costs on Long Island to an average which includes upstate or Western New York. Whether you are a retail manager, or a mechanic, or a banker, or a lawyer, or a teacher, or a school superintendent, you would not accept (and not even be able to accept) the same salary on Long Island as you would in most of New York State. We should expect Newsday to do better than either create, or pass along, that kind of column.
This is turning out to be a very sad season for intelligent dialogue.
For those of you who are either Newsday subscribers, or Optonline customers, you can read the entire Newsday story at:
http://www.newsday.com/long-island/politics/cuomo-li-schools-have-millions-in-reserve-1.2671860?p=
Jerry Hannon
