By Dave Bullard
Oswego, NY – Governor Paterson's proposed cuts in school aid hit Cayuga county the hardest among all of New York's counties. An analysis shows that Cayuga county schools' aid cuts are 90% worse than the state average.
In fact, every upstate county but one suffers cuts that are above average. While every downstate, New York City or Long Island county enjoys cuts that are below average.
Rick Timbs of The Statewide School Finance Consortium said that it is simply not fair.
"What we really need is upstate legislatures to band together," said Timbs, "Partisan politics really are not getting upstate anywhere. With Republicans on one side and Democrats on the other side, we really need them to advocate for their residence in Upstate New York. That is the only way anything is going to change."
Timbs said those cuts destroy core academic programs in upstate schools.
His group has fought for years to get state lawmakers to revise the formula under which aid is distributed. That formula has been acknowledged to provide more aid to wealthy downstate districts at the expense of poorer upstate districts.