Are Unfunded Mandates Suffocating Our Public Schools?

Attend a Rivertowns school board meeting and there's one phrase you're bound to hear repeated--whispered almost wincingly, as board members and administrators scratch their heads and throw more money into their already-inflated bugets.

Unfunded mandates.

Authoratative commands issued by the state or federal government, mandates are requirements of public school districts to perform specific tasks for which they are not monetarily compensated.

With school budgets undergoing significant cuts this year--including cuts to personnel and programs--unfunded mandates, the list of which is steadily growing, pose a serious problem to school officials by threatening to drain resources from their educational programs.

"It is important to understand that we have no control over approximately one third of our budget because of unfunded mandates," Dobbs Ferry Superintendent Debra Kaplan., said. "The more we scrutinize and decrease the budget, the less flexibility we have, and it forces districts to cut in the areas of instruction and services, which highly impacts our schools' core educational programs."

For the last three years, more than 20 percent of Dobbs Ferry's overall school budget has gone to unfunded mandates. An important amount of that percentage has gone to Special Education Mandates, which during the 2008-2009 school year, cost Dobbs Ferry $6,267,300.

Scott Palermo, Director of Pupil Personnel Services in Irvington, knows all too well the resources needed to comply with Special Education Mandates and the effect they can have in other areas of school functions.

"Special Education is particularly difficult since the law requires us to provide programs and services to students with disabilities without regards to cost," Palermo said. "At the same time the public votes on the school budget and thus sets the limits on spending. We have no option but to provide the programs and service for students with disabilities, so the reality is that other areas of the budget which are not mandated ultimately need to be cut in order to spend the funds where they are mandated."

Special Education mandates also highlight another important aspect of the discussion – not unfunded mandates, but under-funded mandates. While schools do receive some financial support for these required services, it is rarely enough, and the amount of support is decreasing rapidly.

One of those mandates, known as the "Extended School Year," provides a critical program for children with special needs, allowing them to continue learning activities past the end of the regular school year and into the summer. While this mandate was previously funded at around 80 percent, it will in the very near future drop to 19 percent.

"I am not in any way saying that the programs and services do not need to be provided," Palermo said. "The problem is reconciling an open spending law with a local budget vote. Either the federal and state government needs to step up to fund the requirements of the law, or that portion of the school budget should be set aside from the public vote."

He added: "Doing what is right for the students, under a law that disregards costs, within the context of finite resources, is one of the biggest struggles that every school district faces--especially since special education represents a significant portion of every district's total budget. If the funding mechanisms are not adjusted accordingly, the fiscal problems will only be exacerbated."

While it is clear that a number of state mandates are beneficial and even desired by school administrators, it is also apparent that a substantial number of them are outdated, ineffective, and even somewhat unreasonable.

For instance, New York State currently mandates over 70 different reports every year, something Dobbs Ferry Board of Education member Anna Sterne calls "an enormous burden." Sterne has yet to receive feedback on some of those reports, a number of which she doubts are ever read at the state level.

"One example is an anti-bullying report," Sterne said. "We believe strongly in the program, but the task of filling out the report is a huge burden. And we never receive feedback from the state."

Other types of mandates require public schools to provide transportation for students in the district attending private schools. According to Sterne, Dobbs Ferry spent $600,000 on transportation for their own students, and $700,000 on students private schools like the Masters School and Our Lady of Victory. A similar mandate requires Dobbs Ferry to fill out a special education reports, IEPs, for students attending private schools within their district lines.

"This one is not a big deal for districts that don't have private schools, but we have two," Sterne said. 

 "How are administrators dealing with it? Well, we're dealing with it because we don't have an option," said Dobbs Ferry Board of Education President Jeff O'Donnell. "It's law and we need to follow it. We try to provide the programs and services and continue to look at them in terms of doing them in the most cost- efficient way we possibly can. That's really all that we can do."

Recently, the New York State Education Department has compiled a list of 151 "Mandates Frequently Raised in Discussions with School Administrators, Board Members, and the Public," although further action regarding these mandates has yet to be taken.

"In April, the Board of Regents discussed this issue," said Jane Briggs from the NYSED. "Commissioner Steiner has promised to continue the push for mandate relief for school districts."

Until then, school administrators can do nothing but educate the public about unfunded mandates and continue to lobby state legislators for the review and elimination of the most onerous requirements.

"I think our legislatures recognize that it's an issue," O'Donnell said. "Do I think anything is going to happen on it realistically? No."

He added: "Very simply, we need to work to make this a hot topic. Maybe then state legislators will take off some of the older mandates that really aren't as applicable or as necessary, but that we are still slogging through year after year."