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Although I might have counted wrong, only 3 were on Long Island. The simple fact is that except for a few stand out gems in wealthy enclaves that most middle class people can't afford to live in, most schools on Long Island are fairly mediocre. A large portion of schools on that list are in Pennsylvania, including the 9th rated school which is right down the road for me. For a similarly situated home, I would easily be paying an extra $10,000 per year in property taxes. It's not to set that money aside every year and not have to hand it over to corrupt public sector unions.
Although I might have counted wrong, only 3 were on Long Island. The simple fact is that except for a few stand out gems in wealthy enclaves that most middle class people can't afford to live in, most schools on Long Island are fairly mediocre. A large portion of schools on that list are in Pennsylvania, including the 9th rated school which is right down the road for me. For a similarly situated home, I would easily be paying an extra $10,000 per year in property taxes. It's not to set that money aside every year and not have to hand it over to corrupt public sector unions.
Yeah but a ton of them are NY school districts mostly westchester which have just as high, if not higher property taxes. I also have to question this list. Almost all the districts were In the northeast. Particularly NY and PA. I find that hard to believe there isn't a single top rated district in the south.
These lists all use their own particular criteria and a lot of schools can't even be bothered to deal with this kind of thing (can't blame them when there's plenty of other stuff going on in schools).
I don't get why you are still on the LI forum. If I hated a place, I would leave and never look back. I can only guess why you keep coming back with your comments, which is not something a full-grown adult would typically do. But hey, I guess you found an article that finally strokes you.
You're also not mentioning another major factor. People want to have great schools for their kids close to their family. It is their best option to remain here in NY - we are lucky to have so many here. Why would we move to PA only to have subjectively-better schools and little else? Especially if we can manage it? Just to spite corrupt unions? You know I ***** about them all the time, but sorry there are more important things to us right now.
Every year we see this sort of list and criteria varies based upon who is creating it. Looking at this list, 10 out of 20 schools are in New York State, followed by PA with 4, IL & CA each with 2, CT and NH each with 1.
As peconic117 noted, a fair number of NYS schools are in Westchester which has taxes equal to or higher than LI.
I think perhaps the very small, local nature of school districts in NY may have contributed to the over representation. I am also surprised that there is nothing from Cary, Plano, Boulder, etc, I.e. affluent suburbs of medium cities.
"These surveys were used to grade each school district on factors including Academics, Health & Safety, Student Culture & Diversity, Survey Responses, Teachers, Resources & Facilities, Extracurriculars & Activities and Sports & Fitness."
If "resources and facilities" include money spent per student then NY should be well-represented compared to other states.
Also, as diversity counts then many homogeneous school districts (3 Village comes to mind) would get highly discounted.
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Originally Posted by daisyLI
It is a mystery.
I think perhaps the very small, local nature of school districts in NY may have contributed to the over representation. I am also surprised that there is nothing from Cary, Plano, Boulder, etc, I.e. affluent suburbs of medium cities.
Outside of the North East you are very often dealing with "county wide" school districts unlike LI which has 127 school districts. So even though Cary may be a high performing area other areas of the same Wake County School District may be average or below average performing so the overall grade of the district is reduced. Boulder & Plano also appear to be county wide so again overall score gets reduced by the lesser performing members. Looking at the List it does appear Westchester is getting better grades for their exorbitant taxes.
I remember reading somewhere that if Long Island was measured as its own country on international rankings, it'd beat Japan at Math. But then again, if you do a state-by-state breakdown and then compare international rankings, many would be surprised. Black (usually the lowest performing cohort, aside from English language learners and students w/disabilities) students in Massachusetts score the same as Finland students (Finland is usually considered the best education system in the world outside of the Asian Tigers) . Massachusetts students overall are the 2nd highest-performing students in the world after Singapore. I'd imagine Long Island would be up there too.
So my point is, overall, you do get what you pay for. However, some Long Islanders definitely pay more than they should. Central Islip, with the highest median property tax in Suffolk County and yet the worst school district (yes, THE worst...as of 2014 they are officially worse than Wyandanch) is the best example. Wyandanch itself also has incredibly high property taxes in relation to its school district's performance.
So my point is, overall, you do get what you pay for. However, some Long Islanders definitely pay more than they should. Central Islip, with the highest median property tax in Suffolk County and yet the worst school district (yes, THE worst...as of 2014 they are officially worse than Wyandanch) is the best example. Wyandanch itself also has incredibly high property taxes in relation to its school district's performance.
I know this was not your main point but ...
There is not and never has been a connection between property taxes and quality of schools here on Long Island. Do not expect a connection; don't expect higher taxes to equal better schools. Or the inverse. Ever. Even the school districts don't claim that.
The connection between commercial taxes (or lack thereof) + state educational aid (or lack thereof) and homeowner property taxes within a district here on Long Island is a connection that actually exists. Expect that connection. For example, if there is a low commercial tax base and low direct state aid you will have higher homeowner property taxes.
If you have a low commercial tax base and relatively high state educational aid you may still have higher homeowner property taxes. Commercial tax base (or lack thereof) is the strongest influence on homeowner property taxes.
To a smaller extent, educating folks who don't pay homeowner property taxes and unwise fiscal/personnel management and unfunded state mandates mightalso contribute to some of the worst -performing schools you noted having the highest homeowner property taxes.
Notice that quality student outcomes are NOT part of the equation for higher homeowner property taxes.
(Of course there are exceptions to this and every generality in life, words like high and low are relative, and your personal experiences may vary)
Last edited by Quick Commenter; 10-18-2015 at 04:47 AM..
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