"When the going gets tough, the tough get going," was a favorite saying of President Richard Nixon back in the day, before his last helicopter ride off the White House lawn.

But the saying is still an apt one, because the current situation in New York State when it comes to education funding can be described in just one word — tough.

Only by the grace of the Federal Stimulus Funds have our local school districts been spared the agony of making really deep, serious cuts in staffing and in education programs.

To see what would have happened without that Federal money, one just needs to look at the financial tornado ripping through SUNY New Paltz. A $6 million deficit plan will include a $2.3 million cut in the instructional budget. The Nursing Program will be shut down, and admissions to graduate programs like Chemistry, Mathematics, Spanish, and French will be suspended.

These are tough cuts — tough to enact, and tough to endure.

The Ellenville Central School District has just released its projected budget for the next fiscal year. Behind the obvious headline news — a tax levy increase of less than 3 percent — lies the tough job that Superintendant Lisa Wiles and her staff have completed. With the help of some retirements and some judicious cutting and pruning, they have produced $812,216 in reductions.

Ellenville taxpayers are lucky. In the first go-round of the budget, there was a potential 13.58 percent hike in the tax levy, something that Superintendant Wiles said was "unacceptable." In a community that has been shown to be paying an inordinate amount of taxes, that would have produced a rebellion. In fact, when you consider the recent report showing that Ellenville is the most highly taxed part of Ulster County, taxes should be going down, not up. Unfortunately, because union contracts are designed not to be opened up and renegotiated, it is very difficult to rein in costs in education. This year, Ellenville will be negotiating a new contract for its teachers. Is the union cognizant of the new situation? Is any increase at all in teacher salaries justifiable in this situation?

What needs to be kept in mind is what Superintendant Wiles has said any number of times at board meetings. The stimulus money is only here for a couple of years. Then it's gone. At that point, our school districts are going to be up against a very hard place. The economy in New York State may be recovering by then, but it is very unlikely to be juiced by an overweening financial sector that will generate a ton of tax money. And for our school districts, that means only one thing: a constant, ongoing effort to pare costs and find efficiencies.

Ultimately, that has to mean taking a hard look at the teachers' contract and the districts will have to hold the line. Everyone is taking a hit right now, or losing their jobs; this isn't the time for salary increases.

Everyone has to be aware that there is no place here for anything more than a quick breather and a pat on the back for getting out of a tight jam, with some effective relief from Washington. From here on out, however, our educators and administrators have simply got to be paying attention to where every dollar goes. We have to be more efficient, or we'll be looking at doomsday in two years time.

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