East Ramapo school board budget vote violates students’ rights: NYCLU demands state intervention

ALBANY, NY – Following the East Ramapo Central School District’s (ERCSD) school board’s flagrant underfunding of public schools in its most recent budget vote — which violates state mandates — the New York Civil Liberties Union today filed an appeal with the New York State Education Commissioner demanding the state use its authority to levy a new tax that will adequately address the needs of East Ramapo students. 

Despite the severe educational and fiscal crises unfolding in ERCSD, the school board put forth an abysmally low 1% tax increase. The district’s inability to raise local tax levy funds means there will not be enough money to complete vital building repairs or fund adequate bilingual education. 

“The School Board and local voting majority has spent more than a decade systemically defunding public education — it’s an unlawful deprivation of students’ rights and it can’t go unchecked,” said Johanna Miller, Director of the Education Policy Center at the New York Civil Liberties Union. “It is unthinkable for New York to allow this school district, the largest in Rockland County, to fail 10,000 public school students. The state must intervene now to protect public school students’ health and safety, and their right to a sound, basic education.”

“The District’s blatant disregard for our children’s education and well-being is appalling,” said Ana Maeda, the named plaintiff in the NYCLU’s appeal and the mother of two children in the ERCSD. “They’re denying our kids the essential resources they need to thrive, including special education and afterschool programs. Meanwhile, the school buildings are literally crumbling around them, and they can’t even access clean drinking water from the fountains! It’s unacceptable that my children and all public school students in East Ramapo are being denied their fundamental right to a quality education as other districts in our state. We need immediate action to address this crisis and ensure our children receive the support they deserve.”

State law establishes stringent requirements for school districts to protect the health and safety of children, limit district use of financial reserves, and maintain suitable learning environments, including safe facilities for students with working ventilation systems and sanitary drinking fountains. Currently, East Ramapo public schools’ ventilation systems and drinking fountains fail to meet state standards — and the current budget means the District will continue to put off needed repairs. 

In addition, because of its history and failings, East Ramapo is subject to unique laws requiring it to meet specific fiscal and academic benchmarks, including targets for English Language Learners. Under the recently-passed, insufficient budget, the District is in direct violation of these state mandates. New York Education Law 311 gives the Commissioner authority to direct the levying of taxes, or issue any other order to give effect to her appeal decisions. 

For fifteen years, the school board majority has represented the interests of white voters who send their children to private, religious schools and refused to invest in public education. By contrast, 96 percent of students attending public schools in the district are Black, Latinx, or Asian and over 80 percent come from economically disadvantaged households. For years, these students have endured severely underfunded school programs, a lack of clean drinking water, very low graduation rates, and sky-high drop-out rates.  Most recently, East Ramapo canceled all summer school programs to remediate hazardous asbestos recently uncovered in the buildings. 

Last year, East Ramapo also added more than 1,000 students to its public school rolls, nearly all of whom recently immigrated to the United States. Now, public schools in ERCSD have the highest proportion of both English Language Learners and homeless students of any district in the state. 

If it doesn’t act quickly, the state is endorsing the denial of the right to an education to thousands of children of color in this district.