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EditorialI always start with the premise that taxes are too high.  But this week I think the $26 million dollar school budget was a very good effort by school administrators and school board members.  Somehow they managed to cut without severely impacting crucial programs while keeping the levy increase at 2%.  The increase in the tax rate would have been 1.5% if it weren't for the AES Cayuga devaluation.  As it is, it's 4.5% but only 1/3 of that is because of the budget rise.

Still, its a lot of money and a lot of taxes, so I was happy to sit through a presentation Monday in which rural Tompkins County school performance is compared.  The presentation included a series of bar charts showing state test performance for South Seneca, Groton, Newfield, Candor, Dryden, Trumansburg, Ithaca, and Lansing.  In almost every case Lansing's bars were the highest -- appropriate because Lansing's teachers set a high bar for their students' achievement -- and well above the state averages.

62% of last year's senior class is attending a four year college this year, and another 26% attends a two year college.  The mean GPA for this year's class is 85.  Their average score in Critical Reading on the SAT was 562 and in math 613.  Three of those students received National Merit letters of commendation, and one is a National Merit semi-finalist.

So it is good to know that as we are being impoverished by high taxes that the money is being put to good use!  Because of prudent spending again this year the district is not dipping into reserves as deeply as they could have, and it appears that the district is healthy.  Hurting from the economy, but healthy.

The budget process was not easy, but apparently there are still a few rabbits in the district's hat.  At the same time it is reassuring to know that school officials and teachers are focussed on improving the already outstanding education they offer Lansing kids.

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