The following was read at the School Board meeting December 9, 2008:

I would like to make the Board and any public watching this broadcast aware of two items that came to the attention of our Affordable Schools Initiative group this week.

The first item was the US News & World Report 2008 ranking of 21,000 US public high schools.  (You can read the full article at the following web link:)

http://www.usnews.com/articles/education/high-schools/2008/12/04/virginia-school-tops-the-best-high-schools-list.html

Brighton HS received a silver medal ranking and did not make the top 100 list.  Both Pittsford Mendon HS and Pittsford Sutherland HS were in the top 100.   Last year, Brighton HS was #57.

The Newsweek Magazine rankings for 1,300 public high schools placed BHS at #158 this year.  We were #26 in 2003 and were in the top 100 until this past year.

When Brighton is in the top rankings, the district trumpets our success.  When we fall in the rankings, the district tells us that the measurement criteria are flawed.

Brighton is slipping based on some objective educational outcomes.  We are not educationally the same district that we were 10 years ago.

Does this mean that Brighton is not an educationally good district?  Of course not.  Brighton continues to do an excellent job educating our students.  But it would appear that we are living a bit on past laurels.  The Board should be concerned with this slippage in objective educational outcomes.

This decline comes in the face of a 35% expenditure increase since 2003. There is a clear disconnect between spending and educational results.  Again, we believe the Board should be concerned with this disconnect.

The second item that came to our attention is a Wall Street Journal article written by an economics professor at Loyola and a public policy institute senior fellow.  I will provide you with copies.

The title of the article is:  A Property Tax Cut Could Help Save Buffalo

(You can read the full article at the following web link:)

http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB122852270789884347-lMyQjAxMDI4MjA4NjUwMjYyWj.html

The article argues that cutting property taxes will stimulate the economy and that western NY urgently needs property tax relief.

Here are some high points of the article:

• Between 2000 and 2007, western NY has lost 32,000 jobs and continues to lose significant population.
• Upstate school enrollments have fallen by 15,900 since 2000 while 5,000 new teaching positions and 7,400 new non-teaching positions have been added during the same period.
• San Francisco and Boston are cited as two cities that faced similar job and population losses during the 1970s and 80’s.
• Yet today, both San Francisco and Boston are growing.  A key factor to this turn-around was limits on property taxes.

Affordable Schools Initiative is concerned that this coming year, with the serious national and NYS economic condition, the Board may be faced with major financial issues.

Affordable Schools Initiative believes that past budget increases are no longer sustainable…especially if NYS aid stays flat or falls.  We urge the Board to be aware of the economy and the negative effect that increased property taxes will have on our town.  We urge the Board to consider a 2009/10 budget where no property tax increase is required.

Thank you for your attention.