Eliot Spitzer's commentary ("Make Wall Street fund schools," Jan. 24) calls for a federal financial-transfer tax, shared with states, to be used in New York to fund an increase in state aid to schools. This proposal is important because it provides a means of increasing state aid to districts with limited capacity to raise local revenues.
Among states, New York has one of the largest disparities among districts in expenditures per pupil. Some districts have generous funding for operational expenses. The top 10 percent spent $18,164 or more in 2010-11 while the bottom 10 percent spent no more than $9,500. Because, on average, only 40 percent of revenues come from the state, the education districts depend largely on their ability to raise funds through local tax revenues. The poorest districts, with property valuations of only $166,000 per pupil, raise insufficient revenue, while the richest districts, with valuations of more than $2 million per pupil, fund their schools generously. The state attempts to ensure adequate funding by providing six times as much to poor as rich districts. Nevertheless, many districts lack sufficient funds to provide essential services.
Further, children living in the poorest districts tend to have the greatest educational needs and require more intensive services to receive the sound, basic education mandated by the state constitution. Increased state revenues are the only way that property-poor districts can secure the funding to provide these services. Spitzer's proposal for increasing state revenues to schools through a federal financial-transfer tax will secure the necessary funding to ensure that all children are prepared to contribute to, rather than burden, the state's economy.
MARTHA MUSSER
Retired coordinator, Information and
Reporting Services,
state Education Department
Loudonville