By Kathianne Boniello
The man who helped launch an eight-year court case against the state to get more money for city schools said earlier this month he is counting on Queens — the borough with the most overcrowded classrooms in the city — to keep the case going.
Robert Jackson, the Manhattan school board member who spearheaded the legal battle for better school funding with the non-profit group Campaign for Fiscal Equity, told a July 12 state hearing on the issue he was planning a rally in October to keep pressure and attention on the case.
In January 2001 State Supreme Court Judge Leland DeGrasse sided with the Campaign for Fiscal Equity, a coalition of parents and advocacy groups that filed a lawsuit against the state in 1993, in a landmark ruling ordering New York to correct its arcane school funding formula.
The case has been stalled in the courts since Gov. George Pataki appealed the decision.
Despite Pataki’s quick appeal the state’s Minority Task Force on School Aid Equity has held two public hearings on the issue in the last month. The task force is co-chaired by state Sen. Toby Stavisky (D-Flushing) and state Sen. Dan Hevesi (D-Forest Hills) is also a member.
Queens had a strong presence at the July 12 hearing in Manhattan, which was co-chaired by Stavisky, featured testimony from City Comptroller Alan Hevesi, a Forest Hills resident, and an appearance by state Sen. Malcolm Smith (D-St. Albans).
Jackson said the rally would be held outside the Appellate Division court in Manhattan the day the appeal in the case is slated to be heard.
“We won’t know what date it is until about two weeks before,” Jackson said of the appeals court date. “We want people to be ready to move with about 10 days’ notice.”
Jackson said support for the Campaign for Fiscal Equity case in Queens, which has long suffered from intense school overcrowding and crumbling school buildings, has been strong.
“Queens has always had excellent support,” he said.
Jackson, who sat quietly through the majority of the three-hour hearing, also credited the work of northeast Queens’ School District 26 for helping to lead the fight for school funding reform.
“School District 26 has been right out in the forefront,” Jackson said of the Bayside district, which has led the metropolitan area in test scores for years. “They’re fighting not only for their kids but are standing up for a quality education for all.”
Throughout most of the state, school districts generate revenue through property taxes. In the state’s five biggest cities — New York, Rochester, Syracuse, Buffalo and Yonkers — the state determines how much money is given to run each city’s public schools. Educational needs, such as services required to help students learn to speak English or to meet the state’s newly raised academic standards, are not considered in funding decisions.
The city Board of Education has 38 percent of the state public school population but receives 35.5 percent of the state's total educational budget, CFE says.
For more information on the planned rally, go online to www.cfequity.org.
Reach reporter Kathianne Boniello by e-mail at Timesledgr@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 146.
