Letter: School tax increases can't continue
A file photo of a teacher in a classroom. (June 16, 2006) Credit: Getty Images
Now that Newsday has published all the proposed Long Island school budgets for the 2012-13 school year, it's time for taxpayers to do a little math ["Schools are less taxing," News, April 27].
Unfortunately, I live in the Syosset school district, which has a very high levy for schools. Per-pupil expenditures are more than $26,300 each year. The cost to educate a child from kindergarten through high school is nearly $342,000. The cost of education in the Syosset district is about three times the national average.
What are we getting for it? Does this mean that our kids are three times smarter than the rest of the nation's? I don't think so. All the years I have been reading U.S. News & World Report's rankings, Syosset High School has never been listed in the top 100.
So, why does our spineless school board keep rubber-stamping everything the administration and teachers union demand? The proposed 2012-13 school budget of $198 million represents a modest tax increase of 2.2 percent. However, at this rate, in 10 years, the budget will be $241 million. Can we taxpayers afford this?
In the 64 years that I have been a Nassau County taxpayer, I have paid about $500,000 in school taxes and never had a child in the schools.
Walter W. Sebert, Woodbury
