Sunday, June 15, 2014
Editorial: In East Ramapo, fiscal monitor is an important first step
A newly appointed fiscal monitor for East Ramapo school district no doubt already has a long to-do list.
The district has been in hot water for building sales done in ways that seemed to serve prospective buyers more than the public; for ongoing fights with the state over private-school placements for special education children even when public school placements exist; for losing track of assets; for employing a lawyer at more than double the rate of the last one, and then pledging to fire the legal firm — still in the district's employ — after an attorney cursed and threatened parents.
Those are just the big headlines in the history of East Ramapo's shaky fiscal decisions.
Hank Greenberg, a former counsel to Gov. Andrew Cuomo when he was state attorney general, has taken on the task. Cuomo announced on Tuesday his support for a fiscal monitor for East Ramapo, naming Greenberg; New York state Education Commissioner John King concurred later that day.
King has long expressed concern about the dwindling educational quality in the district, which has cut programs, staff and teachers to meet tight budgets. The district serves mostly minority immigrant children, but the school board is dominated by members of the Orthodox Jewish community who send their children to private yeshivas.
The private school community dominates in the number of children — two-thirds of children in the district attend private schools — and also at the polls, with a strong bloc vote making it tough to pass significant budget increases.
Ongoing tension
"The goal of a fiscal monitor is to look at how East Ramapo is using its resources, to make sure its use of resources is consistent with federal law, state law and is in the best interests of students," King told The Journal News on Wednesday. There's more than a hint of the ongoing struggles between the state and East Ramapo on several fronts.
East Ramapo and state Education Department continue to butt heads over special education placements in the district. The district insists it is cheaper to pay for a placement in a private school, most often a yeshiva, rather than wage a legal fight with a parent. The state says such placements do not fulfill federal requirements that a child be educated in the least restrictive environment. The district also ignores that its actions can create a self-fulfilling prophecy: Parents know that if they challenge a district special education placement, the district will acquiesce and place children in their private school of choice. Meanwhile, the district spends taxpayer money in its ongoing litigation with the state to keep up the practice.
There's been tension even when the district has sought the state's help, and gotten it. East Ramapo sought and and received, through state legislation, an advance on lottery revenue. But officials continue to complain that the bill has tied additional oversight to receiving the lottery spin-up. Superintendent Joel Klein on Wednesday reiterated that the district would reject the $3.5 million in advanced lottery aid unless the community oversight provision is dropped.
District officials and activists from the yeshiva community insist that the district would be fine if the state would just fix a state aid formula that robs them because it discounts two-thirds of the district's schoolchildren that attend private schools. All youngsters are entitled to district-provided services, including busing and special education needs.
The state aid formula, indeed, doesn't fit the needs of a district like East Ramapo. Greenberg can consider that, too, as he reviews the district's needs and actions.
Accusations of bias, by all sides
While Klein said on Wednesday that he welcomes the oversight, Board of Education President Yehuda Weissmandl on Thursday sent a letter to King blasting the appointment. He wrote that "it is clear to us that the decision to appoint a Fiscal Monitor is motivated less by claimed 'fiscal concerns' and more by divisive local politics." Weissmandl called the decision by King a "capitulation" and warned that, "By acceding to the demands of bigots, you lend official sanction to their prejudice." Nevertheless, the board pledged to work with the fiscal monitor in his "advisory" capacity.
The appointment of a fiscal monitor does not create or even deepen East Ramapo's long-standing divisions. It is sad that the discussion over limited resources so often devolves into accusations of bias, by all sides.
Meanwhile, education quality in East Ramapo slips further into peril. Schoolchildren sit in crowded classrooms, with no district-provided art and music education. In a district where many children speak no English at home, they start their educational years with only half-day kindergarten.
We wish Greenberg well as he dives into the morass of concerns over how money and resources are used in East Ramapo.
http://www.lohud.com/story/opinion/editorials/2014/06/14/east-ramapo-fiscal-monitor-editorial/10544049/
The district has been in hot water for building sales done in ways that seemed to serve prospective buyers more than the public; for ongoing fights with the state over private-school placements for special education children even when public school placements exist; for losing track of assets; for employing a lawyer at more than double the rate of the last one, and then pledging to fire the legal firm — still in the district's employ — after an attorney cursed and threatened parents.
Those are just the big headlines in the history of East Ramapo's shaky fiscal decisions.
Hank Greenberg, a former counsel to Gov. Andrew Cuomo when he was state attorney general, has taken on the task. Cuomo announced on Tuesday his support for a fiscal monitor for East Ramapo, naming Greenberg; New York state Education Commissioner John King concurred later that day.
King has long expressed concern about the dwindling educational quality in the district, which has cut programs, staff and teachers to meet tight budgets. The district serves mostly minority immigrant children, but the school board is dominated by members of the Orthodox Jewish community who send their children to private yeshivas.
The private school community dominates in the number of children — two-thirds of children in the district attend private schools — and also at the polls, with a strong bloc vote making it tough to pass significant budget increases.
Ongoing tension
"The goal of a fiscal monitor is to look at how East Ramapo is using its resources, to make sure its use of resources is consistent with federal law, state law and is in the best interests of students," King told The Journal News on Wednesday. There's more than a hint of the ongoing struggles between the state and East Ramapo on several fronts.
East Ramapo and state Education Department continue to butt heads over special education placements in the district. The district insists it is cheaper to pay for a placement in a private school, most often a yeshiva, rather than wage a legal fight with a parent. The state says such placements do not fulfill federal requirements that a child be educated in the least restrictive environment. The district also ignores that its actions can create a self-fulfilling prophecy: Parents know that if they challenge a district special education placement, the district will acquiesce and place children in their private school of choice. Meanwhile, the district spends taxpayer money in its ongoing litigation with the state to keep up the practice.
There's been tension even when the district has sought the state's help, and gotten it. East Ramapo sought and and received, through state legislation, an advance on lottery revenue. But officials continue to complain that the bill has tied additional oversight to receiving the lottery spin-up. Superintendent Joel Klein on Wednesday reiterated that the district would reject the $3.5 million in advanced lottery aid unless the community oversight provision is dropped.
District officials and activists from the yeshiva community insist that the district would be fine if the state would just fix a state aid formula that robs them because it discounts two-thirds of the district's schoolchildren that attend private schools. All youngsters are entitled to district-provided services, including busing and special education needs.
The state aid formula, indeed, doesn't fit the needs of a district like East Ramapo. Greenberg can consider that, too, as he reviews the district's needs and actions.
Accusations of bias, by all sides
While Klein said on Wednesday that he welcomes the oversight, Board of Education President Yehuda Weissmandl on Thursday sent a letter to King blasting the appointment. He wrote that "it is clear to us that the decision to appoint a Fiscal Monitor is motivated less by claimed 'fiscal concerns' and more by divisive local politics." Weissmandl called the decision by King a "capitulation" and warned that, "By acceding to the demands of bigots, you lend official sanction to their prejudice." Nevertheless, the board pledged to work with the fiscal monitor in his "advisory" capacity.
The appointment of a fiscal monitor does not create or even deepen East Ramapo's long-standing divisions. It is sad that the discussion over limited resources so often devolves into accusations of bias, by all sides.
Meanwhile, education quality in East Ramapo slips further into peril. Schoolchildren sit in crowded classrooms, with no district-provided art and music education. In a district where many children speak no English at home, they start their educational years with only half-day kindergarten.
We wish Greenberg well as he dives into the morass of concerns over how money and resources are used in East Ramapo.
http://www.lohud.com/story/opinion/editorials/2014/06/14/east-ramapo-fiscal-monitor-editorial/10544049/
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