New York – Racial Patterns Are Found in Recent School Budget Elections

New York – Voters in most school districts in New York State passed proposed budgets this year, but in some of the places where the budgets failed or where they were narrowly approved, a revealing correlation emerged.

Budgets tended to fare worse in districts with a large number of white voters and a large number of nonwhite students. And in the four districts in the state where the majority of registered voters are white and nonwhite students make up the majority of the school population, the budgets were defeated.

To be sure, the statewide pattern was not repeated in every district. Other factors influenced the outcomes, and budgets were also defeated in the three districts where blacks and Hispanics constitute most of the eligible voters as well as the students.

Still, sociologists say the outcome suggests the possibility of a growing demographic divide over public policy – school spending, in particular – that has been identified elsewhere in the country between an older, white electorate and a population of voters who are younger and members of minority groups.

“In New York, it appears that white voters in districts with large numbers of minorities, and minority voters themselves, often voted against school spending increases,” said Andrew A. Beveridge, a Queens College sociologist who analyzed the budget vote results for The New York Times. “This very well might undercut educational opportunities for such minorities, while depressing property values in districts with a substantial share of minorities. It may increase the statewide gap between blacks and whites in both school performance and wealth.”

Robert B. Ward, deputy director of the Rockefeller Institute of Government in Albany, said: “The aging of the population clearly will be an increasingly important factor in the politics of school finance in the coming decade or two. It could very well play some role next year when the Legislature is confronted with saying yes or no to a property tax cap.”

An analysis in 2007 by the Population Reference Bureau concluded that states with a large number of white voters and a large number of public schools serving mostly nonwhite students tended to spend less on schools than states in which voters and students were of similar ethnic makeup.

In May, New York voters approved about 92 percent of school district budgets, compared with 97 percent the year before. (In the state’s biggest cities, school spending is part of the municipal budget.)

In Poughkeepsie, where nearly 85 percent of the students are black or Hispanic and about 60 percent of the eligible voters are white, “it was the first time our budget failed,” said Ellen Staino, president of the Board of Education. “We do try very hard to reach out to get involvement in voting, but there does seem to be more voter turnout from the white population than from the Hispanic or African-American population,” she said. “It is in everyone’s best interest to support education to maintain a well-educated society.”

Proposed budgets were defeated in the three other districts – East Ramapo, Ossining and Schenectady – where the majority of eligible voters are white and the majority of students are not.

A number of local school officials said that with so many younger residents moving away, a big political factor in school budget votes, regardless of race, was the large number of older voters who did not have school-age children.

In East Ramapo, which has a growing Hasidic population and where most public school students are not white, Nathan Rothschild, the president of the Board of Education, said, “Economics is a bigger factor when the majority of voters do not have children in public schools.”

Ira Oustatcher, the schools superintendent, said: “The balance is what’s the best you can do and your community can afford. It really has never become a racial issue here.”

In Wyandanch on Long Island, where a majority of both eligible voters and students are black or Hispanic, Rodney Caines, the Board of Education vice president, also cited the age gap. (The budget lost there and in Mount Vernon and Westbury, where most students and voters are nonwhite.) “I wouldn’t necessarily say it’s racial,” he said, “but what you’re left with are older residents who no longer have students in the district.”

In New Jersey, where a majority of school budgets were rejected this year for the first time since 1976, a different pattern emerged. With Gov. Chris Christie “capping state spending on education,” Dr. Beveridge said, “voters in wealthy districts approved budgets that not only lead to better education for their kids, but to higher real estate values.”