When Vice-Chancellor Adelaide L. Sanford said it yesterday at the Drum Major Institute, it sounded like a wise crack but it wasn't. She said
"Is the Robin Hood System Ok?" implying that richer districts are being robbed to fund poorer ones. Regent Sanford won't abide by that framing;
"It's not Robin Hood, the truth of the matter is you rob the hood" (As quoted by DMI's Elana Levin [1].)
What Ms. Stanford was referring to is a difficult debate about how to fairly fund public education in New York State. Should the $5.7 Billion due NYC schools out of the CFE litigation (and perhaps a comparable amount state-wide) be taken from wealthier New Yorkers so as to improve the schools of poorer people? Ms. Sanford and I had both attended a Baruch College debate of the "Robin Hood" solution where educrats, progressive politicians and political scientists seemed to agree that no one was going to take money from the rich. Will everything change from day one? I personally doubt it because, to mangle Fred Douglas, powerful interests will give up nothing without a demand.
Education funding in NYS is boring and opaque for a reason: poor people pay for the schools of the rich. New York State's funding formula for schools rewards wealthy communities with lower tax rates and higher per-pupil expenditures (and, as a result, better schools) than poorer commmunities. This result, odd from a public policy point of view but completely understandable as an expression of raw political power, means that poor people pay much higher taxes for much worse schools.
There are several reasons for this: 1) rich communities have a more valuable (income & real estate) tax base and so can fund their schools with lower taxes than poorer ones. 2) The 25% share of Medicaid reimbursement borne by local government hits the pocket books of poorer communities harder than rich ones. 3) STAR (School Tax Refund) flows to owner occupiers of single family homes, so poorer, renter communites lose out 4) A general treaty among legislators, usually tacit, that restricts state aid to NYC to 38% of a total aid category.
These issues were the subject of a discussion hosted by the Citizens Budget Commission and the Albany-based Center for Resonsive Government a few weeks ago. The forum asked if taking money from richer districts to aid poorer ones -- the Robin Hood -- solutions could work. The progressive politicians: NYC Council Member Robert Jackson -- the lead CFE plaintiff -- and former Assembly Education chair Steve Sanders were certain: Robin Hood had no future in Albany.
So the question remains: how will we pay for good schools? Stay tuned.
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