School consolidation and vets benefits

Compiled by The Associated Press

Feb. 19: The Adirondack Daily Enterprise on school superintendent salaries and sharing services in New York.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo picked on school superintendents' pay in his budget speech Feb. 1. Really, it's about time this issue was forced upon New Yorkers.

While administrators' pay is a relatively small part of the state's school spending, it is symbolic. People grow frustrated when they think of those who manage public funds getting more than their share.

Are they too high? That depends on your point of view.

The governor claims that 279 (more than 40 percent) of the superintendents of the state's 698 public school districts get salaries and benefits worth more than $200,000 each and that 2,000 school administrators get more than $150,000 in compensation.

Those rates are out of line, considering what other public-sector leaders with more responsibilities make. Gov. Cuomo makes $175,000 and oversees thousands of workers and a 12-figure budget. As he said, there's no reason any school superintendent should make as much as he does.

Each superintendent in the four districts the Enterprise covers makes between $109,000 and $135,000 a year in wages. Factor in benefits, and some of them cross that $150,000 threshold. We see our local superintendents as devoted and high-quality public servants, but these salaries are pretty high given the cost of living around here.

Superintendents are paid so well largely because demand for them is high, but that's a structural flaw. Demand is high because there are so many school districts competing for superintendents.

In this case, demand is greater than need. Do the Elizabethtown-Lewis, AuSable Valley, Keene, Lake Placid, Saranac Lake, Tupper Lake, Long Lake, Newcomb, Indian Lake and Clifton-Fine districts each need a superintendent making $100,000 to $150,000?

Most people would say no. It stands to reason that the quality of education would be just as good with a good principal in each school and a superintendent for an area the size of a county or a Board of Cooperative Educational Services district.

That's why many people have been calling to consolidate school districts. It's a good discussion to have, but practically, it's not going to happen easily. It would come with painful changes like closed schools, merged sports teams, lengthened bus rides and downsized faculty, and people are going to rebel against that.

Last year, there were distinct choices in the Lake Placid and Saranac Lake school board elections. In each, voters rejected candidates who wanted to look seriously at consolidation. We'll see if that trend continues, given the state budget crunch, but still, the people have spoken.

There is an easier solution, however, at least for now: Neighboring school districts could start sharing some staff members but keep schools, teams and faculties more or less the way they are. They could even share superintendents, as the Raquette Lake and Piseco districts did until Raquette Lake's shut down completely. State law doesn't prevent this; it says every district may - not must - have its own superintendent, according to Robert Lowry Jr., deputy director of the New York State Council of School Superintendents.

Mr. Lowry's organization is not necessarily against sharing superintendents; it depends on the circumstances.

Likewise, he said, district consolidation or forming regional high schools might be a good move in some places and not in others.

Predictably, Mr. Lowry said superintendents' pay does need to be higher than that of teachers and principals to encourage advancement.

Fair enough, but with yearly percentage raises, senior teachers are making so much that principals and superintendents have to go into six figures to top them. The wage race can get out of school boards' control.

Yes, it's unpaid local school board members, not anyone in Albany, who bear the responsibility here. It's worth noting that these volunteers often are not education or management professionals; once elected, they run the risk of leaning heavily on administrators for guidance. Therefore, they often see these administrators as being more valuable than the average taxpayer does.

It may be time for school boards in the entire Franklin-Essex-Hamilton BOCES district to get together to talk seriously about sharing - perhaps superintendents, other district officials or high schools.

Whatever gets shared, some people will probably lose their jobs. But under the current pattern, a larger number of teachers would be laid off, and that would mean larger classes, fewer course offerings and a worse education in general.

Maybe it's best to take some steps toward consolidation without going for it whole-hog. Then boards can see where it takes them and what future state budgets hold, and decide whether to go further, stay put or pull back.

adirondackdailyenterprise.com

Editorial

Feb. 19: The Poughkeepsie Journal on the compensation and pension claims backlog at the Department of Veterans Affairs.

A federal judge's decision to sanction the Department of Veterans Affairs in a benefits case highlights a problem that doesn't get nearly enough attention: the egregious backlog of claims that has kept military personnel waiting far too long.

A Newburgh law firm handled the case involving California resident Cleveland Harvey, who was kept waiting more than two years before the VA explained what benefits the Vietnam-era veteran would be receiving. This particular case involved whether

Harvey would be receiving compensation pay instead of military retirement pay. A judge sided with Harvey and ordered the VA to pay his legal costs and a $20,000 sanction for civil contempt, believed to be the first time such an action was taken.

Katrina J. Eagle, director of the Veteran Service Group at Finkelstein and Partners, said she hoped the court's sanction would help other veterans receive more timely service from the VA.

Let's hope so, because, overall, the numbers are particularly grim. The VA now has about 785,000 pending compensation and pension claims, many involving veterans returning home from war. Remarkably, that actually represents progress since the number was closer to 1 million cases a few years ago.

Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki set some better goals for the VA after taking over in 2009, such as having cases processed within 125 days and improving internal controls to reduce errors with claims. But the system clearly remains overwhelmed, especially with so many more veterans coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan and with the VA now accepting older cases involving Agent Orange.

U.S. Rep. Bob Filner, D-Calif., a member of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, has suggested a new approach, whereby veterans applying for disability compensation could receive an immediate payment if they are willing to accept a reduced amount, rather than wait through this unrelenting process. That's according to a story in the Army Times, a Gannett publication, as is the Poughkeepsie Journal.

Though Filner's frustration is understandable, his idea seems far from perfect. Though checks would go out in a few days this way, the government shouldn't be approving cases without serious review because it could encourage fraud.

The VA believes by next year, the numbers could turn in its favor, as a combination of better automated services and clearing the Agent Orange cases would enable it to process more claims each week than it will continue to take in.

But the VA has held out such hope before. Though federal resources are limited, President Barack Obama and Congress have actually increased the VA budget the past few years and more staffers were hired to handle processing.

Pressure must be kept on the VA to work through these claims. If it takes judicial sanctions to get the attention of the federal government to make sure the VA backlog is addressed, so be it.

poughkeepsiejournal.com