Cohoes school budget is not a good deal

I recently looked at the Cohoes School District distributed document regarding the school budget in preparation for the upcoming 15 May budget vote. I will vote no.

The headline was masterful: “Tax rate expected to decrease for third straight year.” How nice! Who would bother to question a tax rate decrease? Everyone should!

Here is the real skinny. Perhaps the tax rate is decreasing as presented. But the actual tax is increasing - not decreasing. We are going to pay more. Why? Well, spending is going up by over $1 million. Spending seems to always go up. For the past 10 year period Per Pupil Spending in Cohoes schools (now about $22,000) has risen about 75 percent. That is several times (about 4 to 5 times) faster than the official Consumer Price Increase.

But wait! There is more. The number of students in Cohoes has been dropping during this period of increased spending. There are now about 16 percent fewer students than ten years ago. The pub- lished flyer spins this declining enrollment as an “achievement” specifically “Lowered elementary class sizes.” This implies more teachers were hired to serve students. Actually, there are about 20 (or 12 percent) fewer teachers than 10 years ago (not more).

Bottom line. We, the people, are expected to pay more to get less. Should we be happy with that? Shouldn’t the school board hold somebody accountable for this? Shouldn’t voters hold the board accountable for this?

Budgets should be dropping, not increasing. But public schools enjoy a government imposed monopoly. Without competition people end up paying more to get less. How can this be a “public interest?” This is a bad deal. I urge a no vote. Werner Hetzner Cohoes