HOGANSBURG, New York (WWNY) – Three school superintendents are calling out New York state for funding inequality. It’s because their districts each have one building on Native American land.
Because of that, the school building is technically owned by the state.
So, when the superintendents want to upgrade the schools, they can’t go to voters; they have to go to the state.
They say the state is neglecting these buildings to the tune of millions of dollars.
This story hits home in the north country in the Salmon River School District, where one building is on Akwesasne.
“By God, it’s wrong that we were never provided with the same resources to level the playing field for these students,” said Stanley Harper, Salmon River superintendent.
Because New York owns the school buildings, superintendents can’t go to voters for improvements. They basically have to beg the state.
“The nation schools where these Native students attend … they just don’t have the same as all the other kids across the state in all these other buildings,” said Harper.
State allocations spread just $3.4 million per year across three nation schools and 11 other state-owned schools. The superintendents are calling for $20 million for each nation school in next year’s state budget.
“We provided the transparency. Now it’s time to get the checkbooks out and we’re asking our elected officials in Albany to do that for our kids,” said Jeremy Belfield, LaFayette Central School District superintendent.
The three are the St. Regis Mohawk School, Onondaga Nation School and Tuscarora Nation School. Slides shown at a conference at St. Regis Mohawk Friday showed some of the building problems. And those lead to others.
“In the summertime, the temperatures in our classrooms get so warm that we’re actually not able to hold summer school here,” said Alison Benedict, St. Regis Mohawk School principal.
Students have to be transported to another Salmon River school 12 miles away.
Could this request for $20 million survive New York’s fractious budget process? It’s something they’ll be following closely at St. Regis Mohawk School and across Akwesasne.
The superintendents will lobby Governor Kathy Hochul to put the $60 million line item into her 2022 executive budget proposal. For the future, they want a $6 million per year capital fund set up to be distributed among the nation schools.
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