Category: News and Opinion

The Gateway (Henrietta Hudson Edition)

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I’ll admit that some of these stories have a tangential relationship to our biggest local dick joke (and I’m front-loading them), but these days, even Meow Mix or Henrietta Hudson’s would have trouble being this Weiner-free.

　

　

Yoda catches the worst columnist in NYC (and the most despicable member of my Congregation) in a whopper which I wish I'd spotted first.

Trends in NYC Education Finance: Same Victims New Predator Part 1

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In this post from last year, I provided a historical overview of the Campaign for Fiscal Equity lawsuit, and referenced some long-term data without providing it in spreadsheets or describing it in detail. Then I provided data for FY 2002 to FY 2008, the latest available at the time, to examine what had changed during the Bloomberg/Mayoral Control era. To change things up, this time I’ll provide the long term data and describe it, and compare the FY 2009 revenue and expenditures per student data in my previous post with the same data for FY 1996. Finally, I’ll use NYC budget documents to compare FY 2009 to the present and the budget proposal for FY 2012.

What emerges in the data is the following story.

Census Bureau FY 2009 Education Finance Data

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As noted in this post, the U.S. Census Bureau has released elementary and secondary school finance data for fiscal year 2009, along with a PDF report with revenue and expenditure data by category for states and larger school districts. I have tabulated the detailed data in a similar way, and have attached to this post a spreadsheet with data for for New York City, Downstate New York, Upstate New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts and the U.S., plus all school districts within New York State. The data includes revenues by source (federal, state and local), and spending by category (instructional vs. non-instructional, wages, benefits and other, interest and debts), all expressed per student. In high-wage high-cost areas – New York City, the Downstate Suburbs, New Jersey and Massachusetts – an adjustment is made for this.

When I first started compiling data from the Governments Division of the U.S. Census Bureau more than 20 years ago, spending on the NYC schools was low, particularly compared with the rest of the New York metropolitan area. Today, however, that is no longer the case. I’ll recount this history, and what has changed for the city from FY 2009 to the current budget proposal, in my next post. But this post will focus on FY 2009, when total spending per student was $22,569 in New York City, $22,357 in the Downstate Suburbs, $18,318 in Upstate New York, and $19,566 in New Jersey. This compares with just $16,406 in Massachusetts and just $12,547 in the U.S. Adjusted for the higher cost of living and general wage level here, New York City’s per student spending at $17,133 was still 36.6% higher than the U.S. average. The Downstate Suburbs were at $16,972, New Jersey at $15,436, and Massachusetts at $12,858 – about the same as the U.S. average once living costs/average wages are adjusted for. New York City’s spending per student, therefore, in addition to being much higher than the U.S. average was also higher than in the Downstate Suburbs or New Jersey. Upstate’s spending was higher still.

ANTHONY WEINER IS POLITICALLY WOUNDED, BUT HE IS NOT DEAD: AT LEAST NOT YET

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Last week I wrote a column on my Room Eight New York Politics blog (www.r8ny.com) about Anthony Weiner’s contemporary political problems. I was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, relative to his claim of being “hacked”. Yesterday, at a hastily arranged press conference, Congressman Weiner admitted that the photo of a man’s pubic area -which went viral on the internet last week- was his. He also admitted texting it to a young female student.  He further admitted to internet- dalliances with at least six female strangers over the past three years. 

Surprise, Surprise

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Suddenly, everyone is in a panic. Housing prices are falling, stock prices are falling, and businesses are not hiring. Is anyone surprised? Stocks are overpriced, based on the average dividend yield, and corporate profits are inflated by rising government debts which allow businesses to pay less and sell more. Younger generations are worse off than those who came before, as a result of the decisions of those who came before, and will have to pay less for housing. And corporate executives have had basically one idea for the past 15 years — move production to lower wage countries, and then sell the resulting product to Americans. Who came up with the money by borrowing until they were broke, and the government stepped in to postpone the collapse of the economy until it is broke. The executives paid themselves richly for that one idea. They have yet to come up with another one.

You want a booming economy? Look at this chart. We'll have a booming economy when our debts are back to normal levels. Optimistically, that will take a decade. Pessimistically, we're Japan or Weinmar Germany.

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