Tagged: education

School spending is the focus of tonight's budget hearing in the City of Syracuse. One portion of the district proposal that's expected to sail through is the closing of a school.

In their so-called retirement, Tom and Liz Brackett founded and now run an education non-profit, the Brackett Refugee Education Fund. In this conversation, they relate the story of how they decided to start this, how they approach and structure the work of their organization, and what inspires them to keep up the effort.

Russell, a Democrat from Theresa, has introduced legislation that will adjust the way school districts' wealth is measured.  Generally speaking, the poorer a district is, the more aid it gets. But it’s not a true sliding scale at the top and bottom ends.

Right now, the poorest districts are all lumped together in the same category, even though some may be much poorer than others. The same is true of the richest districts – they're all seen on equal footing, even though some may be much richer than others.

In effect, this drives less money to the poorest of the poor districts and more money to the richest ones.  Russell says that's a real problem when aid is being cut.

Oswego, NY – Grant Reeher speaks with Pat Driscoll, the operations director for Syracuse's Say Yes to Education Program. Driscoll discusses just what makes the program so different from previous efforts to overcome the educational challenges that disadvantaged students face.