New Jerseyans voted down a record number of public-school-district budgets last month. New Yorkers will have a chance to do the same on May 18 — and should.
According to state Education Department data, New York’s biggest statewide rejection of school budgets in the last four decades was just 34 percent in 1978. On the other hand, the 58 percent rejection rate that Jersey logged last month was its largest in 35 years.
The Empire State’s public-school establishment is hoping it will be business as usual. The New York State School Boards Association, for example, is trying to claim that school districts are proposing spending hikes averaging “just 1.4 percent for 2010-11,” with the statewide average property-tax levy rising 3.2 percent, which is “lower than the five-year average of 4.8 percent.”…
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