By Mike Schnitzel
Elected officials were on hand to address the concerns of the audience of approximately 100, including Mayor Edward Cahill, state Sen. Dean Skelos, state Assemblymen Tom Alfano and Bob Barra, county Legislator John Ciotti and town Councilman Edward Ambrosino. Andrew Mastromarino, Jessica Montgomery and Ali Mirza attended on behalf of town Councilman James Darcy, U.S. Rep. Carolyn McCarthy and County Executive Tom Suozzi, respectively.
Lawrence McGoldrick, superintendent of District 30, spoke on behalf of the Valley Stream superintendents. He called the state's system of funding education "inherently flawed" and implored lawmakers to work toward finding a solution to the problem. "Every year we come back to find ourselves [underfunded by the state]," said McGoldrick. "The system, as you know, is just not working."
McGoldrick invited the public officials in attendance to start a dialogue with him to talk about the funding problems schools are facing.
Valley Stream High School District Board of Education President Dr. Frank Chiachiere joined McGoldrick in calling for a solution to the funding problem. Chiachiere commended the elected officials for "fighting hard for state aid," but he added that more needs to be done.
Alfano said that education was his top priority, and that he and his colleagues would be "tireless in our efforts to see this budget come in on time and get good numbers for the children."
Michael Douglas, former president of the Forest Road School PTA, told the panel, "Unless we do something about assessments, people are going to leave Long Island."
Barra agreed, and cited as an example of the problem a constituent whose business taxes skyrocketed from $19,000 to $41,000 in one year due to reassessment. "Reassessment every year is crazy," Barra said. "[My constituent] says he could move to Montana and operate his business at one-third of the cost, and the only reason he stays here is his love of the community."
Barra said that such a situation cannot reasonably continue, and that the assessment issue is complicated and needs to be addressed at all levels of government. Ciotti called assessments an "indirect tax," and said that out-of-state appraisers are making inaccurate home value estimates. He advocated ending the assessment program in Nassau County.
Mirza said that reassessment could not be the sole cause of funding inequities, and that corruption, fraud and waste at the state level were contributing factors. He said that reform is needed, and called on political leaders to work together in a bipartisan way to solve their problems.
Skelos took exception to Mirza's implication that he was not working in a bipartisan manner, saying, "[Mirza] calls us career politicians, [while Mirza] is a career candidate." Skelos said that his office had steadily increased state aid to the district over the past 10 years, and that he would "continue to deliver for your community."
School administrators also voiced concerns about the implications of the No Child Left Behind Act, and the costs of additional testing required by the act. Skelos said that NCLB left the schools with an inadequately funded mandate. "The federal government has not matched their rhetoric with money," he said.
Comments about this story? MSchnitzel@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 265.
