MIDDLETOWN – Dr. Richard Timbs, executive director of the Statewide School Finance Consortium, exposed the intractable but unavoidable truth behind the past four years of school finance degradation that was experienced in the Mid-Hudson Valley at a meeting last Wednesday.

"State aid to education in New York is not an economic concept, it's a political concept," he told the audience at an October 2 gathering at the Twin Towers Middle School in Middletown, explaining how $8.4 billion has been taken out of state aid to education in the state since Governor David Paterson brought in a "one time only" Gap Elimination Adjustment in his final year in Albany that has yet to disappear.

"One time only," Timbs noted, has turned into an endless, year after year formula to slash state aid to public education, effectively shifting taxpayers' money away from schools to other things. "Somebody had a gap, and you eliminated it for them," added Dr. Timbs, who showed the aid shift's effect with some chilling graphs.

The impact of state aid cuts on less wealthy districts was overwhelming, according to his data, with some school districts losing 10.5 percent of their budgets. The effect on wealthy districts was largely negligible, with aid losses between 0.5 and 2.5 percent. And, as Timbs pointed out, wealthy districts have many ways of coming up with extra money including just raising property taxes.

The way a district's wealth is calculated, by the way, is through the Combined Wealth Ratio, composed half and half of the property value of the district and the taxable income of the district. The average CWR in New York is set at 1. Half the districts fall below that, of course. Dr. Timbs noted that the wealthiest districts ran out at upwards of 52 times the average. And yet those districts still collect state aid to education and get as much as $1,200 per student.

The differences between school districts in New York are enormous, which Timbs pointed out should be expected given that many of the wealthiest districts in the country, and some of the poorest, too are within our boundaries.

The tax bases in the top 10 percent of districts by wealth produce a per-pupil property valuation of $3 million or more. At the other end of the scale, per-pupil valuation is less than $135,000 in poor districts. But the basic cost of education is much the same no matter which district you look at. Teachers, administrators, custodians, and coaches are all paid in the same salary bandwidth, and school busing costs are pretty much the same too, across the board.

Here's some basics, according to Dr. Timbs:

New York and Massachusetts lead the country in providing good public education. New York spends about $20 billion a year, and more per student than any other state. New York also has high property taxes, and about 60 percent of property tax goes to schools.

This year alone, the Gap Elimination Adjustment cost Hudson Valley School Districts $128 million. When education is paid for by property taxes, wealthy districts have little difficulty in replacing such money, even under the 2 percent tax cap regime. But for average and below average districts, it's another story. For them, cuts, and more cuts, become necessary... which means fewer teachers, less programs, no music or art, and the elimination of JV and modified sports, or maybe all sports.

Dr. Timbs showed that due to the formula New York State uses to distribute school aid, many school districts do not get their fair share of funding. Those districts are forced to cut program and eliminate teachers, while the cost of education is shifted even more to property taxes.

Most recently, Albany has dictated that school districts use up unappropriated fund balances to help balance their books, and all while state aid has been cut.

Timbs pointed to a grim situation ahead unless funding for education in New York is reformed.

"We're running out of options. Once the fund balances are gone, what else will be cut?" he said to an audience that included many of the region's top public educators. "There is no plan!"

He then laid out three demands which he said are essential to saving quality public education in this state.

First, he noted, we should establish genuine equity in the distribution of state aid — a system based solely on need.

Secondly, the state should eliminate unfair GEA aid cuts, which benefit high-wealth districts at the expense of low and average wealth districts.

Lastly, Timbs suggested that New York establish real mandate reform to offset the costs of pension and healthcare expenses.

Supporting Timbs were the superintendents of Valley Central, Warwick and Middletown school districts, while many other administrators were in the audience from Ellenville, Rondout Valley and Pine Bush districts, among many. They said that unless Albany changes course, their districts will face steep cuts and the elimination of even more teachers and program than they've had to cut in recent years.

In her closing remarks, Lyn Lillian, vice president of the Warwick Board of Education, urged the audience to stay involved.

"This is not an event, but a process," Lillian said. "I am absolutely convinced that grass roots advocacy may be the only way to preserve the level of education we've always had in this state. I feel very strongly about that."

A follow up workshop has been scheduled for November 13 at Orange/Ulster BOCES in Goshen on effective advocacy. For more info go to www.statewideonline.org/Data.html.