Quality Education at Competative Cost

By David Rahni

A paradigm shift to closely sustain quality education while scrutinizing budget line item to ensure the process remains cost effective, and quality of life including the enhancement of real estate valuation is conserved.

It is said out of any misfortune, a phoenix should rise from the ashes to lead us to overcome the challenges posed. The current economic fiasco and its long-term ramifications on the local school budgets is the case in point. Most Westchester School Districts have been recognized as, and should remain among the top tiers in the nation. Schools in our region have and continue to be generously supported by the local [property] taxes and their respective budgets have increased up to 10% a year on many instances with community's passage and families' 24/7 active engagement.

In lieu of the current global economic recession, it is only through a long-term enhancement of the curriculum, especially in reading, writing, science and math, that we can successfully ensure the training of scientists and technophiles, technocrats and civil servants, etc. who will ultimately reinvigorate the economic prosperity for all in the region and the nation. Education and healthcare, energy and environment, infrastructure building and civil and private services are the growth areas for the employment outlook. With the investment we rightly make in education, there is no longer any plausible excuse why our students and the education they receive, are not ranked among the top few percentile of the world. As a partial product of overseas educational systems and having taught in Europe and Asia, I am well cognizant of their strengths and cost-benefits comparisons.

As much as free enterprise in a competitive capitalist society is a noble approach, there are, nonetheless, un-compromising and sustainable public service such as quality education that are the hallmarks of an advanced and civilized society. A new paradigm, to expect a more substantive federal-state-local partnership to provide for high quality K-16 educational opportunities, as the best investment for socio-economic progress and political stability, is more desirable than ever. The so-called State mandated austerity budgets, which in essence imposes taxation without representations on ordinary citizens to pay for bureaucratic exorbitant ideas and finance the "essentials", that is 90+%, if a school budget was repeatedly turned down, must be revised to re-empower the voting franchisees and to reflect the socio-economic and democratic realities of the twenty-first century.

In the interim, and although providing gratis community contributions, it is incumbent upon the Board of education members in each school district and as part of their fiduciary accountability, to thoroughly examine and scrutinize the budget process and devise and implement quantifiable assessment tools that apply across the district including but not limited to the student learning outcomes, teachers' effectiveness, staff and in particular the administrators' impact. During a critical economic juncture and while making every conceivable effort to minimize impact on quality educational delivery, it is naturally imperative for all of us to bite the bullet and sacrifice so as to bring the whole community together and to move together beyond the current trepidation and uncertainty. ___________________________ Let me first appreciate the opportunity to share my perspectives on the Somers School Board of Education. Somers public school system has clearly been recognized among the strongest in the Lower Hudson Valley and the NY Metro. Such stature has come about through the commitment of our students and their parental support, and anchored on our excellent teaching staff, and administrative infrastructure. That said, however, this is a rather challenging juncture in our history when we should sustainably enhance the quality of our education, while critically reviewing our policies and practices to ensure tax payers, are factually receiving the maximum for their bucks. Given the voter's trust in me on May 21 election, I shall bring in a fresh vision to the School Board, where we meet both the quality education and the competitive taxes to ensure maximizing quality of life indices such as real estate. In the long run, I believe in a paradigm shift where state and federal agencies along with the private, profit and non-profit sectors should take a more substantive role in school endeavors. As university Science professor and researcher for nearly 25 years, and with many gratis civic participation I believe I have the necessary acumen to play a vital role in our school board for the next three years.

Thanks again for having provided the forum to be heard. As a long time residents of Westchester County for 23 years, 8 years in Somers lone, I have served gratis in a number of board and councils, as reflected on http://www.DrRahni.com . As a university science professor and researcher in the corporate and government sectors for the past nearly thirty years, and with having overseas educational experiences both as a student and as a professor typified by my having served as a Fulbright Senior Research Scholar in Denmark and visiting faculty positions at the universities of oxford, Rome and Florence, I truly believe I have the necessary track records to be of substantive contributions in moving along our school system through the current uneasy times. Such collective track records have cumulatively given me the relevant experience to be of possible substantive value to the Somers School Board when elected this spring. Sustaining high quality education for our students at competitive cost remains my main goal. In the long haul, a comprehensive study to investigate the pros and cons behind a more substantive role for the federal and state agencies in the public school is in order.