By Tom Roberts
What would New York be without public monies going where they shouldn’t?
The latest example involved a massive amount of much-needed state education money going instead to posh private schools to help pay for teachers’ salaries.
An investigation by the New York daily news shows a state program that provides monies for Math and Science teacher salaries somehow went to some of the most expensive private schools in the city, some of which charge more than $50,000 a year for tuition.
“In 2017, the first year of the state-sponsored grant, the Upper West Side stalwart Columbia Grammar & Preparatory School, which charges north of $52,000 a year and where President Trump’s son Barron attended class, got nearly $100,000 in state money to pay for teachers of science, technology, and math — known as “STEM” programs, according to state records,” the Daily News reported. “The pot of gold has only grown since then – from $5 million in total funding in 2017, to $15 million in 2018 and $30 million last fiscal year. Gov. Cuomo proposed $35 million for the program in his latest executive budget.”
“It’s outrageous that a number of these wealthy schools are getting this money,” City Councilman Danny Dromm (D – Queens) told the Daily News. “We have plenty of students in the public schools who would benefit from that type of investment. It’s short-changing our public school students.”
It is worth pointing out that New York City’s public schools have yet to be given more than a billion dollars that the state said it would be sending.
The New York State Education Department received over 1,700 applications from nearly 400 schools in the 2017-2018 school year for the state subsidy, which is labeled the Math, Science & Technology Teachers in Religious and Independent Schools Grant.
Ironically, a major part of Governor Andrew Cuomo’s 2020 State of the State report focused on requiring transparency to ensure districts distribute state aid in a more equitable manner. He said he would continue to close the funding gap between poor and rich schools by requiring that state education funds go to the neediest schools. “These requirements will ensure that districts are funding the neediest schools. Although the state distributes 70 percent of its funding to the neediest districts, the districts do not always distribute funding to their schools in an equitable manner. In fact, some school districts have schools with significantly higher needs receiving less than the average school in the district. New York will continue to drive funding equity by requiring school districts to disclose, by building, where their funds go.”
