Letter: Dialogue needed before new Lansing school vote

I was pleased to see that the tax-weary people in the Lansing School district took the time to say “whoa” on the $22,800,000 athletics facility remodel. Voter participation in school expenditures is the only check and balance. (There is no state mandate to control budget growth.)

Having been on a school board (Southern Cayuga) however, I know what’s next: a PR blitz, a slight shave, and another vote on an off day. Those who benefit directly will have it on their calendar.

What SHOULD happen: an in-depth dialogue/poll on just where everyone’s heads are at in regards to school spending in Lansing. With all we’re going through a thorough review of expenditures should be on every school board’s plate.

Budget votes are a poor way to find out community sentiment for 2 reasons: (1) They usually deal with a frog-in-the-pot increase that, if voted down, would make little difference that year (it’s the accrual that’s killing us) and (2) stakeholders are often bullied with the threat of losing music or art or whatever. People aren’t heartless, they’re just tired.

The NYS school charter mandates “sound and basic” [education]. The original intent, it seems to me, was to provide a default school for families who didn’t have the ability or resources to see to their kids’ education on their own. NY public schools have had 50+ years of mission creep, driven by a variety of interests, and now “sound and basic” costs 2 or 3 times as much as private and parochial schools do.

Public schools are run with an overarching view that we all get direct benefit from them, growing their “offerings” and budgets every year. But not everyone does benefit directly from public schools just as not everyone gets a direct benefit from Saint Catherine’s, Montessori, Waldorf, or home schools.

A community’s public school is a valuable asset but the level of taxation that we are now enduring is dimming that value and to many it is negatively impacting their life and limiting their choices.

I am not a curmudgeon; I care about the kids. More and more young people are being priced out of home ownership and a big part of that in NY is due to property taxes rising faster than wages.

Again, what the school board in Lansing needs to do is reach out to the stakeholders and ask how they feel about their level of taxation. Don’t taint the conversation with feel good antics and threats. Maybe the answer is to start downsizing the extras. A lot of families and businesses are doing just that. Some of the voters apparently think it’s time for NYS schools to start doing the same.

Joe Lonsky
Danby