Sol Stern has a great column reviewing the likely fallout from the Campaign for Fiscal Equity case in New York City, which, if upheld in the courts and heeded by the legislature, will require the Empire State to increase funding for Gotham's public schools by more than $19 billion. Here's what Stern says New Yorkers can expect: "The children of the city will get a gilded school system with upgraded facilities that, based on outlays per pupil...will cost two times as much as the U.S. average. . . . Most of the additional money will go to teachers and other adults who work in the city's public school system, while there is little prospect that the children will get a substantially better education. On the other hand, the added tax burden on businesses and working New Yorkers will further depress economic activity, harming many of the families of the children who were supposed to benefit by this case." What's more, predicts Stern, the money will likely harm the Catholic school system, which has a proven track record in educating poor and minority kids that far outshines the public system, by increasing the pay differential between Catholic and public school teachers and attracting good teachers out of the Catholic system. "New Yorkers," he concludes, "are likely to look back on this case and conclude that it wasn't much of a bargain after all."
"They never learn," by Sol Stern, Barron's, January 24, 2005