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Community Corner

Briarcliff School Spending

Letter to the Editor:
As the Briarcliff School Board begins its deliberations regarding the approval of the budget for the coming year, a conversation in this community is long overdue regarding the cost of educating our students.

If one examines the spending per pupil throughout Westchester County and then focuses on similar-sized districts with performances equal to or superior to Briarcliff, one cannot help but notice that we spend more per pupil than any of the districts.  This despite the fact that if we look at our performances on college entrance exams, we compare unfavorably with districts that spend less but perform at a higher level.

This is not to say that SAT scores are the be-all and end-all but, and the big but is, it also doesn't indicate that spending more in any way has provided a better outcome.

It took a long period of time for Briarcliff to create the spending machine that it's become.

It should be the mantra of any school board to get the maximum output for the minimum expense.  When other districts can spend 25% less and have similar if not better outcomes, it behooves the Board to find out exactly what those other districts are doing and implement changes in our own educational community.  At one time there was a discussion about looking into how other school boards function, and how other school boards have obtained the lower cost per pupil but as far as I can see, that has never been done.  If we were running a corporation and other companies were putting out a product for less money, the CEO would be fired and someone brought in to make that company competitive.  However, this does not happen because of the "tyranny of the minority" concept.

Those who think they have the most to lose from changes are the ones who are going to be the most vocal.  Whether it be the teacher unions or concerned parents, their voices are always heard and in the background is the mantra that if we spend less, our children will learn less.  This concept is completely erroneous and you just have to pick up the directory of Westchester spending per pupil in each district and you will see that it is not based upon facts, only opinions.  In the words of Winston Churchill, we are all entitled to our own opinions but not our own facts.

Whether it be the NRA funded by the gun manufacturers that spread fear that any controls on guns would lead to erosion of our freedoms and danger to our families or the financial sector telling us that any control on trading by large banks would negatively impact the American economy or the military-industrial complex supporting congressmen who in turn will become fear mongers about any reduction in military spending, the stories are all the same.

It's necessary for those who are on the receiving end or the perceived receiving end of spending, to continue those policies and create fear among the electorate.  This fear feeds into an inability to cut spending in any area, hence this endless spiral of greater taxation not matched by greater accomplishment.

Interestingly enough, charter schools in New York City particularly those in Harlem Success Academy, were just ranked #1 in the state of New York on the core exams.  That's despite being demographically completely at the other end of the economic spectrum from our Westchester schools.  How did they do it?  They did it by not using the same paradigm of the school days, school years and curriculums.  And they did it at a much lower spending per pupil than even the New York City schools.

New York state ranks #1 in the country in spending per pupil yet is far down the list academically.  Briarcliff Manor has a similar problem.

Unless the voices of those who are not fearful of reducing spending start speaking out, the "tyranny of the minority" will continue as it has across this nation in an endless spiral of spending more and receiving less.

In conclusion, to quote the immortal line that Jack Nicholson uttered in the movie A Few Good Men, "The truth? You can't handle the truth."  Hopefully he was wrong in our case.

Sincerely,
Victor M. Sternberg, D.M.D.

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