Love and contempt |
On Board Online • May 23, 2016
Timothy G. Kremer
NYSSBA Executive Director
Why do people often feel favorable about their local communities but have serious doubts about the condition of the state as a whole?
Call it a matter of love and contempt.
There is no shortage of complaints about poor government decisions that emanate from distant places like Albany or Washington, D.C. But support for locally-controlled initiatives, as evidenced by the recent budget votes, remains quite strong.
A recent Siena poll found more than half - 56 percent - of New Yorkers feel public education in our state is heading in the "wrong direction." Yet, nearly the same percentage say their local school districts are "on the right track."
Despite this apparent contradiction, there is a simple explanation: people believe in local control. They believe local leaders have their best interests at heart. And they believe good local decisions will overcome bad ones made at the state and federal level.
Local citizens know first-hand the quality of education programming because their children attend the local public schools. Walk into a restaurant in most districts and you'll find people who personally know school board members, administrators, faculty and staff, often on a first name basis.
Community members take personal pride in the success of local graduates. They live, work, invest and pay their taxes here. Parents, business owners and local taxpayers know that a high-achieving, safe, well-managed, properly-financed, accountable school system is a local responsibility. They count on their elected school board to make smart decisions to advance the community's interests. So I'm not surprised that the Siena poll found most people think their local school districts are "on the right track."
At the same time, it's apparent to anyone who reads the news that federal and state policymakers have demonstrated a knack for creating one expensive mess after another. No one person or institution is to blame, and many negative consequences were not intended. However, as the poll suggests, most voters don't see merit in the initiatives that have emanated from Albany and Washington, D.C.
We are witnessing a backlash to overreliance on standardized testing and poorly designed teacher accountability measures. As usual, local school districts have been forced to make the best of a bad situation.
The madness continues. Local officials, operating at the mercy of the state, are now forced to renegotiate a new Annual Professional Performance Review (APPR) system under the backdrop of a moratorium that essentially renders moot any legitimate use of it.
Actually, it's worse than a waste of time; it's counterproductive. The link between a revised APPR and the ability to receive state aid increases has provided union negotiators with a grand bargaining chip. APPR, in its current forms (3012-c and 3012-d), represents an intrusion of the state into a local responsibility to evaluate the performance of employees.
Of course, the ultimate example of state governmental overreach is the local property tax cap. But look what happened last Tuesday. Voters approved 98.5 percent of school district budgets, with a 99.7 percent passage rate for school districts within the tax cap (640 districts), and a 77.8 percent passage rate for districts exceeding the cap (36 districts) - substantially greater than the 61 percent passage rate for override attempts last year - and well north of the historical average passage rate of 53 percent.
Interestingly, there were a record number of negative tax caps. (Was that expected five years ago?) Twenty school districts with negative tax caps tried to override the cap; 18 succeeded. Are we beginning to see a trend whereby voters are willing to forgo top-down external restrictions (and miniscule rebate checks) in order to better fund their schools?
This year's high passage rate confirms that voters recognize the hard work of school board members and administrators in crafting wise spending plans that are in keeping with community needs and an ability to pay.
The Siena poll results are additional validation of what NYSSBA has always said: education decisions are best made at the local level.