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School district consolidation would make sense, because does every hamlet really need a series of schools? They could buy buy certain things in bulk if they consolidated, which would save a lot of money. Not a whole county district, but like a Plainview-Syosset-Bethpage, etc district.
Buying in bulk is unlikely to produce savings and is not a real incentive for consolidation. Most schools already buy off cooperative contracts with volume breaks far exceeding what an individual district would get. The savings would be in redundant services like legal, auditing, some special ed, administrator salaries and benefits. Those savings would be significant. Doesn't matter, here come the "consolidation never" chants! Heaven forbid such disparate and unique utopias like LI school districts share curriculums. That's crazy talk!
I was looking up info about SDs on LI and it seems as a less-shocking alternative to school district consolidation (which I do support). According to an article, Homewoners in Roosevelt, Herricks, and Mount Sinai pay 90% of the district's tax levy, while in Uniondale (thanks to the Roosevelt Field Mall, the Colosseum, etc) homeowners only pay 29%. I have a feeling the same disparity exists between Central Islip and Hauppaugue. Hauppaugue is said to have some of LI's lowest school taxes (probably because of the industrial park) meanwhile Central Islip supposedly has LI's highest school taxes (very ironic-it's also the 3rd-lowest performing school district). Central Islip also has a huge amount of special needs students: exactly 1 in 4 students does not speak English, more than 2 out of every 3 students qualifies for free or reduced price lunch. In Haupaugge, those numbers are 1 in 100 and 1 in 13, respectively. Central Islip clearly needs more money, yet Hauppauge gets all the money from the park. I think commercial taxes should be pooled so high-need, low-wealth districts can get the funds they need. Do you think we should have a system like the twin cities?
Not ironic at all. There is not and never has been any relationship between higher property taxes and higher district reputation or performance. I have never even heard anyone claim this to be the case.
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