Schools
Local Superintendent Is Urging Parents To Fight The Gap
Comsewogue School District is starting a letter campaign to demand New York State get rid of the Gap Elimination Adjustment that continually reduces state aid.
Superintendent, Joe Rella, and the Comsewogue Board of Education have come together to start a writing campagain against the Gap Elimination Adjustment (GEA) for the 2014-15 school year.
According to the district, the GEA is a formula that has reduced the amount of
state aid the district has received for the past couple of years. Rella said the school has lost almost $13 million dollars in a three-year period due to the GEA formula.
Rella said this is a statewide issue because all districts are faced with the GEA formula. "This annual practice is detrimental to quality education on Long Island and is not acceptable to taxpayers. Now is the time to work together to eliminate the GEA," said Rella.
The district has created a letter template that you can use to contact your local legislators and let them know how you feel about GEA.
Read part of the letter below:
As a voter, taxpayer and resident of Comsewogue Union Free School District, I urge you to support and fight for the repeal of the Gap Elimination Adjustment (GEA) starting in the 2014-2015 school year. Formerly known as the Deficit Reduction Assessment, its original purpose was to reduce state support to public schools in order to close the state’s own $10 billion budget deficit. This annual
practice is detrimental to quality education on Long Island and across the state and is not acceptable to taxpayers.
Now is the time to work together to Eliminate the GEA!The success of Long Island’s public schools is the pride of New York State. Over the past three years,
the GEA has reduced state aid to Long Island school districts by close to $1 billion, with nearly half of this amount coming from Long Island’s 28 low-wealth school districts. In an attempt to lessen the destructive effect of the GEA, Long Island school districts have been depleting their fund balances and reserve funds to minimize detrimental cuts to educational programs and to maintain a tax levy
increase that local taxpayers can support. Over the past three years, the impact of the GEA on Comsewogue has resulted in a reduction of 12.8 million.
To read the rest of the letter or find out more information click here.
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