I wonder how many of the so called experts here, such as LC, ZD or anyone else has even bothered to look at the budget.
ZD was insistent that special education costs are much higher in ERCSD than anywhere else in the state.
WRONG. Attached to the budget is a copy of the statistics comparing the district to the state (this is report prepared by the NYSED). The average cost is $4,000 LOWER per student in the district than in state as a whole and in comparison to similar districts (NYS’ designation, not mine.)
The average cost per public school child is $2,000 HIGHER than the average in the state.
Total spent on special Education to private schools and out of district schools is approximately 7.99 million out of a total of $65 million spent for Special Education. About 12%. Hmmm. (When the private school population seems to outnumber the public school population by 3.5 – 1)
And that (7.99 M) is less than the amount spent on extracurricular non-mandated services specifically for the public schools. Such as art, music clubs and sports teams( Beyond mandated PE).