What a total disgrace!  This crazy, unfair system can't be changed soon enough...

"The Senate and Assembly both jealously and tenaciously guard their education share from the state," said Steven Sanders, formerly chairman of the Assembly's education committee and now a lobbyist. "Who benefits the most? I wish I could say the school districts and children, but clearly that has not been the case, and that has not changed."

Even the political calculus that dictates how money is sent to schools is murky. Sometimes, the more power legislators have, the more money their districts receive. Other times, the aid is doled out to protect vulnerable members.

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March 31, 2006

School Aid: Meet the New Math, Same as the Old

By JENNIFER MEDINA

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/31/nyregion/31formula.html?pagewanted=print

ALBANY, March 30 — They call it "the formula": an arcane scheme as unknowable as the recipe for Coca-Cola that is supposed to determine with mathematical objectivity how the state divides education aid among 677 school districts.

But as every legislator knows, politics, not formulas, actually govern the allocation of school aid, more than $17 billion this year. And guiding that process, which riles Albany every budget season, are a couple of unwritten rules...