Here & There Column 2-23-10

Sports Transportation & School Budgets

School officials county and statewide are anticipating cuts in State Education Aid levels as New York struggles to close its well publicized budget deficit.
The present dismal economic news will most likely bring many changes and the 2010-2011 school budgets will present unprecedented financial challenges.
In addition to facing double-digit tax hikes and layoffs school districts might even go as far as cutting extracurricular activities like Modified and JV sports.
Many taxpayers I have talked with on this subject indicate that changes have to be made in how education is paid for and that points to a topic that says education can no longer be paid for with property taxes.
Yes, us New Yorkers have the distinct honor of having the highest tax burden in the country and many are saying that the taxpayer can't take it anymore.
What ever happened to the state lottery money that was designated to go to education? Proponents of the lottery funding gave us all kinds of indications that the funding of education would no longer be a problem........all of us question where that lottery money is going and why is education now facing a crisis?
An interesting topic of discussion took place with a coordinator of school transportation recently who agreed with me that costs for school sports transportation should be modified and changed and school sports leagues need to consider realignment (at least for the immediate future) to save on the high cost of transporting teams to league games.
If you travel to school sports activities, like my wife and I do on a weekly and monthly basis, it's almost ridiculous to see the number of school buses it takes to transport a JV team, the Varsity team and cheerleaders to away sporting activities......and most of the time these buses travel back to their respective school districts with only several students on them because many are signed out by parents who have their students travel back home in the family car.
The coordinator of school transportation we have talked with agreed there should be more consolidation of buses on these trips where in many cases one bus could serve the needs for transporting teams to their away games.
Realignment of teams could very well also take place and save huge transportation costs within the borders of Sullivan County which could include an A and B division for Roscoe, Livingston Manor, Tri-Valley, Sullivan West, Eldred, Liberty, Fallsburg and Monticello....many of these schools presently play each other in modified sports.....take it to the next level at least until the economy improves and brilliant minds find alternative ways to finance education.