Cornell University is the largest property holder in Ithaca. As the institution is a non-profit, 2.6 billion dollars-worth of its property is non-taxable. In an Ithaca Times article, the Tompkins County Director of Assessment Jay Franklin estimated that if Cornell paid taxes at the same rate as residents of Tompkins County, it would owe ICSD forty-six million dollars. Cornell’s latest contribution pledge to ICSD of 650 thousand dollars per year is barely one percent of this amount. As Cornell continues to fail to substantially contribute to its community, taxpayers face a higher burden and ICSD faces mounting issues. Cornell has a responsibility to the Ithaca community to contribute more through higher donations in lieu of taxes, at a rate comparable with other wealthy universities.
Cornell is an outlier among other well-endowed universities in its lack of contribution to local school districts. Princeton University, another Ivy League school with a large endowment, will pay 14.6 million dollars over the next five years to Princeton Public Schools. If Cornell’s contributions continue at the rate established in the most recent agreement at time of writing, it will only pay 3.25 million dollars over the same time period, despite ICSD having several thousand more students than Princeton’s school district. This lack of a substantial contribution forces ICSD taxpayers to make up the difference: Franklin estimated that if Cornell paid taxes on its property, the ICSD tax rate would drop by forty-five percent. The district has already gone over the New York State Property Tax Cap this year, increasing the tax levy by 7.21 percent. This is the second-largest increase in more than a decade. ICSD is the only public education system in Ithaca, and for students who cannot afford private education, it is their only option. Without increased support from Cornell, ICSD will either have to place a larger and larger burden on local taxpayers, or operate without the funds to solve the crippling problems of the district.
A greater influx of money from Cornell would directly support ICSD, which has been struggling to support its students in reaching learning standards. Last year, two elementary schools, Beverly J. Martin (BJM) and Enfield, lost their “good standing” status with the New York State Department of Education. BJM in particular is cited by New York State as a school that “struggled to prepare certain subgroups (such as students with disabilities or certain racial/ethnic groups).” These are the two schools in ICSD with the greatest percentage of students eligible for Free or Reduced Price Lunch, indicating broader issues of economic inequity in ICSD. Greater funding from Cornell would help ICSD to further fund programs, initiatives, and staff to support students in need and tackle these pressing issues.
In addition, increased contributions from Cornell could go toward increasing sustainability in ICSD. While the district has recently made progress on this issue, for example through their investment in five electric school buses, more money from Cornell could speed up the process of decarbonization. It could also support transportation within ICSD—as driver shortages and other chronic busing issues cause many students to arrive late to class every day, missing out on valuable instructional time. TCAT transportation, upon which some ICSD students rely to get to and from school, has also been limited by Cornell’s lack of support. Despite around seventy percent of TCAT-use coming from Cornell students and staff, Cornell foots only one third of the bill. A lack of funding in TCAT has led to service reductions, most notably on Route 13, the bus to and from IHS.
Existing problems in ICSD have only been made worse by the lack of pay for teachers and other non-administrative staff. Uncompetitive salaries have left many positions in ICSD unfilled, and teacher turnover has been extraordinarily high, with a rate of twenty-three percent for teachers with less than five years of experience. The Tattler Editorial Board spoke with Aurora Rojer, a humanities teacher at LACS and the secretary of the Ithaca Teachers Association (ITA), who became involved in the Make Cornell Pay campaign through the Ithaca branch of the Democratic Socialists of America. The campaign is a coalition of groups in Ithaca pushing Cornell to contribute more to its community. According to Rojer, if Cornell donates more to the school district, the top priority for the district should be raising the salaries of non-administrative workers such as bus drivers, teaching assistants, and teachers. “One thing that we like to say in the union is that teachers’ working conditions are student learning conditions,” Rojer told The Tattler. “Other workers in the district, some of them don’t even make a living wage, which I just think is absurd for a district that’s so focused on equity and a ‘culture of love.’” As of ICSD’s most recent job postings, custodial workers and groundskeepers are just some of the employees being paid around 15.50 dollars per hour. This is well below Ithaca’s living wage of 18.26 dollars per hour, according to MIT’s Living Wage Calculator. Rojer views Make Cornell Pay as a “great opportunity for us to get the money that we need to pay our teachers what they need.”
The ITA, echoing this sentiment, voted to join the Make Cornell Pay coalition in early October. This is a valuable step to strengthen the Make Cornell Pay coalition and increase the pressure on Cornell to support its community. Kathryn Cernera, ITA president and former middle school English teacher, re-emphasized the importance of Cornell helping to combat issues within ICSD. She made clear that the 650 thousand dollar a year pledge that Cornell made is simply not enough compared to how much the university can offer to ICSD. “It’s not in alignment and that really makes me question the values of the institution that they would even offer that amount of money, and makes me wonder what role they feel they play in this community.” The pledge is barely 0.4 percent of ICSD’s current budget, and as Cernera described, it is simply “not problem-solving money.”
In addition to direct donations to the school district, Cornell could also support other programs that benefit the ICSD community, such as the Ithaca Public Education Initiative (IPEI). IPEI is a completely donor-funded program that gives grants to teachers and helps support extracurriculars in the school district and around Ithaca. A yearly pledge from Cornell to IPEI would help fund many of their different programs, including teacher grants and the student grants that IPEI introduced this year.
Many problems in the school district result from a lack of direct funding and support, and an increased contribution to ICSD from Cornell in lieu of taxes is necessary to meet the educational needs of students in Ithaca. Cornell prides itself on its commitment to education, and has a responsibility to its community to ensure that every student in Ithaca has the opportunities they need to succeed. The Tattler Editorial Board urges Cornell University to fulfill its responsibility to the residents of Ithaca and provide more support for the ICSD community.