I am proud of the students and educators of our region. Together, they work diligently to bring learning to life in a way that is distinctly relevant to our heritage here in the North Country. I am concerned, however, that a continued unfair practice in school aid calculations has forced Northern New York students to sacrifice diverse and unique educational enrichment. I believe our students deserve better.

Schools in our region are primarily rural and serve many underprivileged students. The four counties which my district encompasses have an average youth poverty rate of roughly 23 percent, which is troubling and is nearly as high as in New York City. North Country Schools, unlike wealthier areas of downstate, must rely heavily on large sums of state aid per student in order to provide a high-quality education.

Last year, 27 school districts throughout my assembly district on average were denied $1,319 per student, with some students receiving almost $2,000 less in state aid. Shockingly, on a per-pupil basis, North Country students endured larger cuts than their wealthy counterparts on Long Island. East Hampton’s school district on Long Island is similar in size to South Jefferson here in the North Country, however, their students were only cut $296 per pupil while ours were robbed of $1,626. Gouverneur was cut a devastating $1,082, while Long Island’s Oyster Bay school district’s cut was 70 percent lower at $324 per student.

To close last year’s looming $10 billion budget deficit, schools in my assembly district were forced to do without over $40 million in school aid. As unveiled in the 2012-13 Executive Budget proposal, Gov. Cuomo indicated that he would restore $290 million to schools; of this restoration, students in my assembly district will receive roughly $204 per pupil of what was taken from them in the previous year. This still leaves North Country students easily $1,000 per pupil short of what they deserve. If reinstatement of school aid funds continues at the current rate, it could take schools on average eight years – and for some over 20 years – to recuperate the loss. Certainly we can do better for our children.

Further complicating matters is the fact that a lot of school dollars must be spent on costly state mandates like pensions and healthcare. Educators have expressed to me their concerns over the cuts, and how they have impacted their ability to offer competitive and diverse curricula to their students. Late last year, the Board of Regents took a vote that echoed the North Country’s call for reform of the School Aid Formula in fairness to rural, low-wealth regions. I, too, share these concerns and have written to Gov. Cuomo and Education Commissioner Dr. John B. King, calling for this reform.

Upstate students have struggled for years with an inadequate education funding policy and the governor’s budgeted education plan will, in fact, create further divides between downstate and upstate. His creation of a $250 million competitive education grant, while well meaning, continues to leave North Country students behind. Many struggling schools within my district wouldn’t even qualify to compete for these funds due to performance challenges, which are only exacerbated by a lack of money.

New York State is literally in debt to our students, especially those here in the North Country. Instead of creating a divisive grant competition, I encourage my legislative colleagues to instead take that $250 million and restore as much funding as possible so all students have access to a quality education. I am hopeful that between now and April 1 we can develop a more fair way to fund education in our state.

As always, I welcome your suggestions and ideas on how to improve education and all the other services that our state provides. Give me a call at (315) 493-3909 or email me at blankenbushk@assembly.state.ny.us. My staff and I are always eager to assist you.