State education chief eyes cost-cut ideas

Cancel Conservation Day?

Faced with the darkest financial outlook in 20 years, state Education Commissioner David Steiner Monday unveiled 53 potential cost-cutting ideas for schools that range from simplifying paperwork to dropping mandatory celebrations of Conservation Day, formerly known as Arbor Day.

Some of those ideas - though far from all - are expected to be incorporated into broader "mandate relief" recommendations by a state task force appointed by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo.

Last week, Cuomo proposed cutting statewide school aid by $1.5 billion next year as part of plans to eliminate a state budget deficit. Cuomo also announced the formation of his task force, with a March 1 deadline for making recommendations on what state requirements could be relaxed or eliminated.

The deadline left Steiner with little time to cobble together his own ideas, which he presented to state Regents Monday at their monthly meeting in Albany.

The commissioner said the cost-cutting suggestions would "ensure that our resources are effectively used for maximum educational impact."

But the Regents had reservations. For starters, members of the policy-making board nixed a proposal eliminating required middle-school courses in technology and Home and Career Skills. Steiner reports to the Regents, though he also sits on the governor's task force.

One board member, Roger Tilles of Great Neck, noted that fellow Regents want to put more emphasis, not less, on studies related to careers and technology.

"For us to take out something that we've been moving toward is just not something we want to do," said Tilles.

The Regents' resistance underlined a truism of Albany politics: Almost any proposal to eliminate costly state mandates will generate objections from some group, fearful that change will threaten favorite programs or public employees' jobs.

"Everyone can be in favor of saving money," said Robert Lowry, deputy director of the State Council of School Superintendents. "But that's going to cost someone something."

Lowry warns, however, that, unless mandate relief is granted, schools could be forced to cut costs in other ways "that probably nobody would choose." He contends that the middle-school course requirements recommended for elimination are excessive, on top of the state's other mandates for courses in the basic academic subjects.

Other ideas involving streamlined administration - for example, allowing districts to share bus routes - could prove easier to adopt. But an ongoing effort by dozens of districts in Nassau County to do just that has not yet come up with large savings.

Neither Cuomo nor Steiner has estimated how much might be saved through mandate relief.

Anthony Annunziato, superintendent of Bayport-Blue Point schools and president of the Suffolk County School Superintendents Association, Monday acknowledged that mandate relief was controversial. But he added that both educators and lawmakers seem to regard such relief as a financial necessity.

"I have to say I'm optimistic," said Annunziato.