LIers must demand Albany fix school funding problem

No parents want to take sports, arts and academic programs from their kids. And no property owners want to hurt the value of their homes.

And that, in short, is why an overwhelming number of school budgets passed Tuesday during a recession and one of the most volatile political climates in memory. Voters approved the budgets despite proposed state aid cuts that contributed to local spending increases - albeit mostly modest ones - and tax hikes in many districts.

Long Islanders want change, but they vote in overwhelming numbers to accept budgets because they know the stakes are high and programs will suffer.

Want substantive change? Something that will relieve high taxes in the long run?

The best way to get it is to demand change in Albany.

Need convincing? Try this:

Voters in 10 school districts on Long Island voted down their budgets. If they do it a second time, they will go on austerity - which, this year, means a zero percent increase in spending.

Yet salaries are exempted from the zero increase. Pension costs are exempted, too, under state law. Those are two of any school budget's biggest items.

So vote a budget down once, and the school board usually goes back in to cut more expenses. If a district goes to austerity, however, here's what, courtesy of state government, usually begins to happen: Pension costs will still rise. Salary costs (for most local school districts) will still rise because of contract obligations. Meanwhile, districts also will have to cover the cost of other state-mandated expenses, such as special education.

Together, the increases and mandated expenses grow to become monsters in a zero-expense increase budget, eating away at smaller expenses such as advanced foreign language classes, sports, art and music and advanced placement courses.

It's a scenario that districts - even those with bloated budgets - pull out once a year to their advantage. They would have us believe that passing the budget or cutting deeply into programs are the only options. Even in the short run, there are others - negotiate contracts more in keeping with the hard times everyone else is facing, for example.

But there's a need for statewide reform in the way districts operate and how they are funded. But that change won't come unless Albany changes.

There are too many school districts on Long Island.

State law makes it almost impossible for districts to consolidate, even if they want to. Too many of the middle-class districts - especially on the South Shore of Suffolk County - suffer from too little state aid. They are not poor enough for increased aid under current formulas, and not wealthy enough to absorb spending increases.

Yet the state funding formula remains essentially the same. Costs are high and still rising, so much so that the current system is unsustainable. That's why property owners are looking anywhere, everywhere for relief.Tax relief did not - and could not - come on Tuesday. It will come only when voters demand changes in Albany.