Sunday, November 07, 2004

No Children Left Behind...Except Those Who Try To Move Here

The United States Government not long ago claimed that a software company that tied a browser to an operating system was violating anti-trust law. Wouldn't it be fun to see such a suit against upstate NY schools that tie schools to residences.

Especially since it seems that some handicapped kids are being caught in the crossfire:

Revenue from the Rockefellers' holdings lifts the tax burden on others. Homes in the district are taxed $379.40 for each $1,000 in assessed value, which would come to $11,500 to $22,000 a year for those in the new development if they are determined to be in Pocantico Hills. The district is by far the smallest in the county, with 330 students, 83 percent of them white. Per-pupil expenditures are more than $20,000 a year.

Tarrytown, by contrast, has a tax rate of $986.44 per $1,000, nearly three times as high, and the same houses there would yield $22,500 to $50,000 each in annual school taxes. Tarrytown has 2,350 students, more than half of them members of minorities. The district spends $15,000 a year per pupil.

Here is where the the plot thickens:

Cindy and Steven Kief ...in addition to 18-month-old Anna, have twin 6-year-old sons, Jake and Jesse, who have multiple disabilities, including cerebral palsy and mental retardation. Neither can speak, both are in wheelchairs, and one is also blind.

....Ms. Kief said she ... saw a chance to build a house with an elevator, making it unnecessary for her, her husband and the round-the-clock nurses to carry 60-pound children up stairs ever again. They will move into the house, which has all kinds of adaptations for their handicapped sons, in December.

A "for sale" sign is on the Kiefs' lawn in Irvington, and the house is spruced up to sell. "We hit the wall trying to take care of the kids here," Ms. Kief said.


Though school board members in the low tax jurisdiction deny it, the Kiefs are apparently unwelcome because the expense of educating their handicapped children would be more than the tax revenue the Kiefs would bring to the party.

In Hillary Clinton's New York.

The high tax district of Tarrytown wants the new housing development for its revenues. The (by New York standards) low tax district doesn't want it, because they've already got Rockefeller family money to support their schools, and don't want to share it with expensive to maintain newcomers.

Did the Academy mention this is happening in Hillary Clinton's New York?

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