Tag: Education

Per-pupil spending in the 669 school districts outside New York’s five largest cities will climb next year by 2.5 percent, nearly twice the projected inflation rate, according to an analysis released today by the Empire Center for Public Policy. The analysis indicates that school districts' per-pupil property tax levies will increase by 2.1 percent in 2015-16. Read More

Throughout New York State, no public document has a greater impact on tax burdens and educational performance than the local teacher union contract. Yet few school districts have made any effort to share these contracts with taxpayers — and so the Empire Center has stepped into the breach by doing it for them. Read More

School costs can’t be allowed to grow faster than the income of the taxpayers. That’s true of all government spending for every societal need. But when it comes to building roads, housing or protecting the environment, you don’t really hear a roar of influential voices making a perpetual argument that no matter how much we spend, it is nowhere near enough. With schools, you always do. But this year Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo is trying to change that. Read More

School districts across New York are clamoring for a full restoration of state aid cuts known as the Gap Elimination Adjustment, or GEA. But a look at spending in the state's second-largest city illustrates how this battle is not necessarily all about the kids. Read More

If Glick is really looking for an unseemly message about public school pay, maybe she should take a look at what the city and state are coughing up for teacher pensions. New data from the Empire Center for the Public Policy shows the number of teachers receiving six-figure pensions in New York nearly tripled between 2009 and 2014. Read More