MYTH: “RCSD does have enough money, it spends the same amount per student as other districts!”

Most sources suggesting that RCSD is fairly funded take the total amount spent by the District including operational costs like transport, and divide it by the number of students and compare this with other Districts. This is like comparing apples and oranges and here’s why:

RCSD is a financial hub – it receives money that isn’t spent on RCSD students

RCSD is a funding distribution hub, money flows through it from the State to groups to pay for the education of children who live in Rochester, NY but do not attend the Rochester City School District.

The RCSD has no financial control over this money. It receives the money and pays it to Charter Schools, parochial schools, etc. This money does not go to RCSD students or any services that these children receive.

However, it is included in the total money received for District by District comparisons. This makes RCSDs budget look inflated but it doesn’t give accurate data on the money spent on the education of children in RCSD schools.

Districts with higher poverty rates have more indirect costs than wealthier districts

Let’s look at transport as an example:

It costs RCSD more money to provide transport to its students because of the following factors:

1. RCSD pays the transport costs of any student in the Urban to Suburban program.

2. NY State reimburses 90% of transportation costs but only for those living a distance of 1.5 miles from their school. Because RCSD is chronically underfunded it can only provide bussing that is subsidized by the State, that means that is it very difficult for a child to get bused to a school if they live closer than 1.5 miles from the school. This means that families that rely on the bus service for daily transport for their children have to choose schools further away from their home in order to have transport for them. That increases transport costs.

3. Children living in poverty often have housing insecurity. If they are moving from property to property during the year RCSD maintains stability for them by bussing them from any location to their school, it requires a higher level of logistics and costs to maintain that critical continuity for children. 

MYTH: “I heard the money was stolen, I’m not giving them any more money!”

A financial audit found that the district failed to budget correctly and that led to the budget deficit in 2019-20. The District under budgeted for services such as BOCES special education, substitute teachers, and retirement benefits. There is no evidence that money was stolen. There is evidence that the district used poor financial practices to try to fund urgent services at the expense of long term financial stability.

RCSD is chronically underfunded. That means every year it does not receive enough money to provide all the services students need. However, it is still required to improve graduation rates and prepare students for college.

Over the years that has led to the District adopting poor financial practices, using it’s rainy day funds for every day expenses. There has been a change of management and a State monitor appointed to prevent those financial practices continuing.

The difficult truth is without investment the RCSD can never create a balanced budget. The district needed funds to pay for essential operations and services. The amount it has received, year after year, is not enough to provide the services the children need. Without consistent and committed funding by New York State, school officials will be in always be in an unworkable position and unable to provide a sound education to the students.