Talking about the future of education on Long Island

Daily Point

Going to school on schools

What if school boards held elections, and lots and lots of people voted?

It’s not a question that’s come up in recent history because voting rates have been low at least since 1996, the first year all 124 of the Island’s districts voted on the same day in mid-May, when turnout was about 20%. Turnout plummeted to under 10% since the state property tax cap was imposed in 2012, which generally kept tax increases at or below 2%, and most budgets have passed. 

But Tuesday morning during Newsday’s first webinar focused on education, Long Island Board of Regents representative Roger Tilles took a minute to speak about this year’s school board and budget votes and how they may change.

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo has announced that voting will be done this year entirely by mail, with every registered voter getting a ballot and a deadline of June 9.

“When you have a mail ballot that … everyone has something mailed to them as opposed to requesting a mailed ballot, which takes some time and opportunity for a person to get involved with, if it’s mailed directly to every household in the district, you might have people voting for, or against, in my opinion, probably against school budgets, who might not have even come to the polls before,” Tilles said. 

Tilles’ point is that the state is broke and if Washington doesn’t come through with huge piles of cash for New York, state aid to schools will be cut. Individual taxpayers are broke, too, with many of them out of work and business owners shuttered. They may well decide to take a stand against any school tax increase, even those within the tax cap. 

School funding is just one of the topics broached in a discussion on education during and after the coronavirus in which Tilles was joined by Thomas Rogers, superintendent of the Syosset Central School District. 

A video of the Tuesday webinar can be accessed here.

—Lane Filler @lanefiller

Talking Point

LI mayors struggle with lack of funding

The money just isn’t coming in. 

That was the stark admission from Freeport Mayor Robert Kennedy during a Tuesday afternoon Zoom session for local mayors hosted by Long Island’s congressional delegation.

Kennedy said that Freeport estimates a $3.2 million loss of revenue over March, April, May, and part of June. Let him list the ways: building permits have “dropped off completely.” Building code violations “are on hold.” Police are largely not issuing violations, partially because who wants to harp on failure to signal during a crisis, and partially because of fears of illness being transmitted from residents to police officers. 

Kennedy said about 15 police officers on the village's 100-member force already have been "confirmed" to have COVID-19.

Then there’s the potential for big cuts in state funding, which he noted might be even more disastrous for villages in other regions since sales tax is a bigger issue elsewhere. 

The economic woes were echoed on the call by other mayors, including Mayor Francis X. Murray of Rockville Centre, who said, “We need help from the federal government.”

“Without this money we have to raise taxes,” he added. 

Some mayors described the coronavirus crisis as just the latest hit to their financial situations, from superstorm Sandy to recent state discovery law reforms, which Sea Cliff Mayor Edward Lieberman called “very costly” to villages with their own police departments. 

The congressional delegation acknowledged the steep funding issues. 

“We are 100 percent with our villages,” said Rep. Tom Suozzi. 

Rep. Pete King encouraged the mayors themselves to help put “grassroots pressure” on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who suggested bankruptcy for states as opposed to more federal funding. 

It wouldn’t be possible, King said, to get to McConnell by “logic or reason.”

—Mark Chiusano @mjchiusano 

Pencil Point

Finding the right vaccine

For more cartoons, visit www.newsday.com/cartoons

Final Point

Main Street, USA: Post-coronavirus

What happens to a bustling Main Street in the age of COVID-19? Episode 17 of “Life Under Coronavirus” is an interview with Eileen Tyznar, president of the Greater Sayville Chamber of Commerce, which is putting together a relief fund to get local businesses back on their feet.

Tyznar talks about Sayville’s retail business experiments with curbside pickup, the issues they’re having accessing federal relief funds, and her plans to get downtown hopping again, no matter how many masks and plexiglass dividers it takes.

Listen here or wherever you get your podcasts. 

—Mark Chiusano @mjchiusano