Letters to the Editor
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‘Tale of 2 Schools Suggests Money Can’t Buy Success’
It’s deceptively simple to randomly compare school districts from around the state [New York, “Tale of 2 Schools Suggests Money Can’t Buy Success,” October 4, 2006]. Comparing a working class upstate town to Bridgehampton with its small student population is meaningless — and comparing either to New York City is ridiculous.
You have to compare similarly situated districts and similarly situated kids. You need to know how much is going into administration and how much is getting into the classroom. For example, per pupil spending in District 75, New York City’s special education district, is the highest in the city and the test scores are the lowest. That’s not wasting money; that’s about putting money into physical therapy, occupational therapy, and other services for those children, who include the most seriously disabled students in the school system.
School spending is as much about how you spend it as it is about how much you spend. Spending money wisely means attracting, retaining, and supporting qualified teachers, small class sizes, and doing everything we can to ensure that our students and educators are safe.
And using the Campaign for Fiscal Equity case as a backdrop for the argument that school spending doesn’t matter is disingenuous. The CFE case is about New York City being shortchanged by the state — something the courts have already found to be true.
RANDI WEINGARTEN
President
United Federation of Teachers
New York, N.Y.
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