The lawsuit charging the Utica, NY City School District should be dropped immediately.  The charges of discrimination are absurd as the 2nd poorest school district in NYS continues to struggle with a lack of NYS funding.  Utica is one of the more diverse districts in the state and one of their shining successes is the fact that they accomplish so much with so little and serve as a welcome mat for all students, including refugees, minorities and those who struggle with the English language. More than 60% of the students in the district at Proctor are minorities.  The fact that NYS fails to properly fund this school district would beg the question: is NYS actually discriminating against these students and thus denies all the minorities in the district their civil liberties. According to the New York State constitution, the state has the obligation to provide sufficient funds for all districts to ensure for a “sound basic education” for all students.

New York State already has an Education Department to investigate and prescribe remedy for allegations of improper procedures in school districts.  It was the State Education Department that intervened in other districts that had refused to enroll “unaccompanied minor” immigrants into their school districts just this year. I would be interested to see if the Attorney General is investigating that issue and will sue those wealthy districts as well. There should not be a double standard.

.If Utica schools have a program that is shortchanging refugees between the ages of 16 and 21, the State Education Department should work with them to correct the problem. If the seriousness of the impropriety warrants some form of penalty, then so be it. However, the Attorney General’s lawsuit is lawsuit seems more like a publicity stunt that usurps the powers and mission of other more appropriate state entities and at the same time contributes to the waste of taxpayer dollars and even further depletes Utica's already dangerously low fund balance. This ultimately only hurts the students at Utica schools and that is a terrible, terrible shame. 

 

Here are some important facts:

Utica City School District by the Numbers: 

2nd lowest property values to raise taxes of all 674 school districts in NYS. (Property ratio (PWR) =.222 or less than one quarter of the state average)

5th lowest overall measures of local fiscal capacity in support its own school district of all 674 school districts in NYS. (Combined Wealth ratio (CWR) =.266 or about one quarter of the state average)

7th lowest income values to pay taxes of all 674 school districts in NYS. (Income ratio (APWR) =.311 or less than a third of the state average)

7th in terms of greatest cumulative amount of formula Foundation Aid owed to a school district in NYS out of the currently 458 underfunded school districts at $409 million. (2007 to present)

10th in terms of greatest amount of Foundation Aid owed to a NYS school district in 2015-16 out of 674 school districts at $47 million. 

12th in terms of percentage of underfunded Foundation Aid for 2015-16 at 37% out of 458 underfunded school districts in NYS.  Utica is only 63% funded.

12th in terms of amount per student of underfunded Foundation Aid for 2015-16 at $4,623 out of 458 underfunded school districts in NYS.  

16th highest percentage (at 80.7%) of elementary school children receive the Federal poverty program known as Free and Reduced price lunch of the 674 school districts in NYS.

45th highest percentage of minority population (62%) of all 674 school districts in NYS. Additionally, 42 different foreign languages are spoken by students and parents within the district’s schools.

17% (or 1,700) of the 10,150 Utica City School District students are English Language Learners. That’s almost 1 out over every 5 students.

200 students ages 17-21 are English Language Learners.

$20 million has been cut from the Utica City School District Budget over the last 4 years.

$21 Million has been withheld from the Utica City School District in GEA beginning in 2010-11.

365 educational and staff jobs have been cut from the Utica City School District Budget in the last 4 years.