East Ramapo school leaders are upping the ante in their push to change the state education aid formula — and subsequently claim more cash for the troubled district — by reaching beyond Rockland Countys borders. District administrators and school board members as well as Rockland County Legislator Aron Wieder, local clergy and representatives of Agudath Israel met this week in Albany with state lawmakers including Brooklyn Assemblyman Dov Hikind, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Senate Republican Leader Dean Skelos to discuss their ideas for getting more aid to East Ramapo. We simply said to the state: Something is wrong. The formula that you use in the rest of the state is not working in East Ramapo, Wieder said. Wieder — a Democrat from Spring Valley and former school board president whose county legislative district includes some of East Ramapo — and rabbis from Agudath, the Manhattan-based Orthodox Jewish advocacy group with international influence, threw their support behind East Ramapo as it kicked off a campaign for more state aid this spring. In April, they formed a group called Community United for Formula Change, touting the involvement of some local clergy who represent the black and Hispanic communities. Hikind, a Democrat who represents a large ultra-Orthodox Jewish population in Borough Park, was invited to the meeting to support East Ramapo, whose school board is dominated by Orthodox and Hasidic Jews. If you click the link below, there is a video where Rockland County legislator Aron Wieder speaks about a new group, Carry the Load, that is pushing the state to change the state education funding formula, which they claim unfairly effects the East Ramapo School District. (Video by Peter Carr) Everything thats happened in the district in the last couple of years is just leading up to where we are now, and its not where we ultimately want to be, Wieder said, referring to the financial crises and student program cuts that have plagued the district. The complex formula that determines how much state education aid each district in New York gets uses property values and the number of students enrolled in the public schools. In most districts, the population of private-school students is small enough that it doesnt skew the results. Not so in East Ramapo. Officials say relatively high property values in the district of about 9,000 public-school students contribute to it being unjustly classified as wealthy — even though most public-school students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. The problem, they argue, is that the state formula doesnt count East Ramapos 22,000 private-school students, most of whom belong to Orthodox and Hasidic communities and attend yeshivas. Subsequently, the district loses out on at least $30 million in state aid per year, East Ramapo says. This year, the district received a $6.3 million bump in state aid, which helped it avoid major program cuts, Superintendent Joel Klein has said. He did not return a request for comment Wednesday. Assembly members Ellen Jaffee, D-Suffern, and Kenneth Zebrowski, D-New City, said they were invited to the meeting by Silver, not Agudath or East Ramapo. They reiterated what theyve told district officials in the past: They support more state aid and will continue to work toward that on behalf of East Ramapo students, but they also think financial oversight is required in response to concerns raised by community activists and findings by government agencies. (Jaffee and I) have been on the same page with this issue, which is that there are problems with the school district that require a multifaceted approach, Zebrowski said. (We) were adamant that funding is just one piece of the puzzle. And we continue to be adamant that the district needs some immediate oversight in order to protect the quality of the students education. The legislators, along with state Sen. David Carlucci, D-New City, have sponsored bills to address the state formula inequity in different ways. Both bills, S1779 and A6879, are stalled in committee. Silvers office declined to comment on the meeting. Hikind could not be reached for comment Wednesday, the Jewish holiday of Shavuot. The district has been scrutinized by state and federal agencies in recent years and cited by the state for financial mismanagement and its illegal handling of special-education student placements in private religious schools when public placements were available. The district is appealing a lawsuit against the state Education Department over the special-education placements. lohud/story/news/education/2014/06/04/east-ramapo-taps-hikind/9970353/
Posted on: Fri, 06 Jun 2014 15:41:48 +0000
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