------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the July 10, 2003 issue of Workers World newspaper -------------------------
COURT AFFIRMS WHAT STUDENTS KNEW: STATE UNDERFUNDS NYC SCHOOLS
By G. Dunkel New York
The highest court in New York state has finally spoken. The Court of Appeals ruled on June 26 that the state has not provided adequate funding to the educational system in New York City, so that the city cannot provide its 1.1 million students with a "sound basic education." Classes are too big--34 students per class in high schools. Its textbooks, library books and computers are too old and inadequate. Too many teachers are undertrained and not qualified.
The court gave the state 13 months to come up with a plan to fix these problems. This might sound like a lot of time, but times are tough, money is tight and the politicians in Albany, the state capital, have spent decades dividing urban school districts from rural, New York City from upstate cities like Buffalo, Rochester and Syracuse, rich suburban districts from poor, inner-city districts.
In New Jersey, Ohio, Kentucky and Alabama, similar lawsuits have led to similar decisions. But since New York is a major media center, the news of this victory for the city's schools will likely have a national impact. An organization suing California in a similar case intends to use the New York decision.
The New York City Board of Education gets short-changed on state aid, which per pupil is less than the state average. Compared to most of its suburban neighbors, it receives far less money to educate each student-- even though costs in the city are higher.
Other big urban districts--Chicago, Los Angeles, Philadelphia--have similar student bodies and get even less money per pupil than New York. It is unclear how the education they provide stacks up against New York's. But they are already being brought up by opponents of the ruling, who claim that money isn't everything. That's true, but money certainly does help.
For years the wealthy rulers have denied the daughters and sons of the working class, especially in majority Black, Latino and Native communities, the sound basic education they need to function in this society, to get a decent job and support themselves and their families. Their bought-and-paid-for politicians talk about the importance of education, but they certainly do not put the public money where their mouths are.
Now, with most of the states in a fiscal crisis caused by the sick economy and tax cuts for the rich, education is sure to suffer even more.
A key part of George Bush's "No Child Left Behind" program for education is an emphasis on high-stakes tests, like the Regents in New York or Florida's Com prehensive Assessment. A test like the New York State Math Regents is so tough that 63 percent of the students who take it fail. Because the pass rate for the math test is low in the affluent suburbs as well as in the inner city, the state has recently thrown out the test results and told the teachers to grade students on their work throughout the year.
Other standardized tests are more culturally and politically biased against African Americans and Latinos. Those tests have not been thrown out. Instead, politicians like New York City's racist, billionaire Mayor Michael Bloomberg defend the tests by blaming "cultures that do not respect education" and "violence in certain schools."
This court decision exposes the lack of resources devoted to education in New York City. Even if more resources can be found in a time of tight money and budget cuts, parents and their community organizations, teachers and their unions, along with other progressives, are going to have to fight to see that they are allocated fairly and wisely.
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