Personnel in every school district in New York have been working feverishly to craft a budget that they hope will be appealing enough to voters to win approval later this month. While these budgets may gain public support at the polls, we need to examine what these often ill-crafted budgets will do to the children in our schools.
The annual budget vote is a product of the antiquated, regressive and most likely unconstitutional method through which New York and many other states fund their public schools — that is, levying property taxes.
I am calling upon the state Legislature to take action to eliminate the vote on school budgets and to take immediate steps to move school funding to a fairer form of taxation.
What follows should provide all of the explanation necessary for such action. Four months ago, 26 children and school staff members were massacred at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. First responders to the murder scene likened it to a combat zone. There were reports of veteran police officers and medical examiners becoming ill at what they witnessed in that school building.
Immediate cries went up across the nation to make sure that we take every step possible to keep school children safe by any means necessary. In at least one community, safety was such a concern that it was recommended that school principals and teachers be allowed to carry concealed firearms.
Now it appears that this was just rhetoric. In a move that defies logic and common sense, voters in the affluent community of Newtown last week rejected the school budget that included funding for school resource officers in all school buildings.
Why? Because the 5 proposed tax increase was too high.
I am appalled, mystified and angered by this, and I think that any reasonable, caring person would feel the same.
Upon closer examination, there is significant support for my move to end the vote on school budgets. The proposed Newtown school budget amounted to $72 million, and it was defeated by 482 votes. While Newtown has 17,231 registered voters, only 4,495 cast ballots in the budget vote. That's just 26 percent. The school budget was defeated by 16 percent of the registered voters. This vote is clearly not representative of the community. It should be rendered null and void in my opinion.
Citizens of the United States can't directly vote on the federal budget. Similarly, no popular vote is allowed on state, city, village, county or town budgets. The only budget that faces public scrutiny and an annual ballot in which residents are essentially voting to raise their property taxes is the school budget.
Ironically, this is the only budget that guarantees that every dollar spent will remain in the community paying the taxes. Who knows where our federal and state tax dollars end up?
School budget elections produce results that are negative at best, and which could put the safety and potentially the lives of our children and their teachers at risk.
A second tragedy occurred in Newtown when voters turned their backs on their schools. I guess this says something about what is really important. It is the worst manifestation of the adage that "money talks."
Rest in peace, all of the babies who died in Newtown and all of the teachers who died trying to protect them.
All teachers, stand strong. Continue to do the right thing for the kids.
Residents of New York, do the right thing as well. Demand that school budget votes be repealed. Let's build school budgets that actually make sense.
Metallo is a retired principal of Albany High School and a former adjunct instructor at Albany and SUNY Plattsburgh. His email address is johngmetallo@live.com.