Archive: Opinions

The Lansing Community should be aware of the financial impact of having 10 students attend New Roots Charter School (NRCS).  If ten students from Lansing leave Lansing school district to enroll in NRCS, New Roots will take approximately $180,000 of already allocated school tax dollars along with those ten students.  This calculation is based on the per pupil allocation that Lansing Schools must pay for each student that transfers to the New Roots district.  It also includes additional costs for a contribution to the salary of a school nurse, transportation, (which Lansing must provide for each student from their home to the Clinton House), books and supplies and costs for special education teachers and aids. Current information has nine students who have expressed interest in attending New Roots, although that number remains unverified.

What is verified is the approximate cost per student from Lansing. The bottom line for Ithaca is $16,980, a number that has been computed based on state formulas provided by the NYS Department of Education.* ( See Ithaca Journal Guest Column, page 7A, April 3, 2009.)    The number is about $1000 less than the cost to Lansing as the per-pupil allocation is higher in Lansing than in Ithaca.  Lansing is unlikely to save anything from losing ten students as it cannot simply chop off classrooms, reduce the number of busses, reduce teaching, special education or nursing staff at the high school, etc. Thus, Lansing must contribute $180,000 to fund an educational experiment planned in downtown Ithaca with virtually no cost savings to offset students who leave.

Realize that all this money comes out of the district without a single vote or authorization from the elected school board.  The New Roots district was created by a New York State chartering agency (The Charter Schools Institute of SUNY) which gave cursory review to an application overflowing with Ithaca College academic credentials and sustainability rhetoric.  No one in Ithaca, Lansing, Dryden, Groton, Newfield, Trumansburg or any of the other areas where students are being recruited got to vote on this expenditure.

Best of all, New York State does not indemnify its charter schools which means that if this school fails, funds that have gone to New Roots can not be recovered even if students must come back to their home districts when the school must close its doors.  The original petition to withhold funds for this school at this time of continuing fiscal crisis is still available to sign. Lansing residents are invited to sign the petition found by Googling "New Roots petition".  Letters to local newspapers and your state legislators are also helpful and welcomed.

Pat Ehrich
Ithaca,NY

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