The Conservative Party of New York State home goals2001 priorities national join us history links Pick a Subject Area. Measured by financial support, New York State schools should be the finest in the country. State school aid has been increasingly generous, almost twice the rate of inflation.
Local taxpayers are equally generous and now contribute far more than they ever anticipated.
Yet the few objective studies available to us conclude that there is very little correlation between better schools and increased school expenditures. Clearly, the state's enormous educational expenditures have not produced superior schools. Performances of New York students on standardized tests, such as the S.A.T., indicate no substantial improvement in verbal and quantitative skills over the past several years. It should be equally clear that a state takeover of educational costs would not necessarily produce quality education but could easily perpetuate the mindless notion that more dollars equal better education. Obviously, the financing of New York State education has reached a crossroads.