Wealth Indicators By The Department Of

Labor Regions 2001-02 School Year

 

 

Introduction:

This paper examines measures of wealth such as actual value wealth per pupil, and income wealth per pupil, in the year 2001-02 by New York State Labor Department regions. The examination of these indicators of wealth highlights the tremendous diversity of districts found within each region.

 

 

Table 1:The Number Of Districts In

Each Labor Region By NRC

 

  Capital Southern Tier West Hudson Valley LI & NYC Finger Lakes Central Mohawk Valley North Country State
NYC 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1
Big 4 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 0
HN urb/sub 9 3 5 10 10 2 2 3 2 46
HN rural 5 42 27 6 0 13 7 24 33 157
Average 52 30 43 43 42 50 27 26 25 338
Low 8 0 4 41 71 4 2 1 3 134
Totals 74 75 80 101 124 70 39 54 63 680

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Table 2: The Actual Value Wealth Per Pupil By Cost Region In Thousands

Of Dollars, Rounded To The Nearest $1,000 (2001-02)

 

  Capital Southern Tier West Hudson Valley LI & NYC Finger Lakes Central Mohawk Valley North Country

Mean

01-02

$286 $179 $181 $425 $778 $175 $174 $192 $345
Max $1,609 $894 $549 $1,819 $10,587 $348 $550 $1,716 $3,044
Min $105 $75 $75 $138 $120 $104 $83 $86 $48
Range $1,505 $819 $474 $1,681 $10,467 $243 $468 $1,630 $2,996

 

 

 

·        As shown in Table 2 the Long Island New York City region was the wealthiest region in terms of actual full value property wealth per pupil, and had the greatest range of extremes.

 

·        The North Country had the second largest range of extremes, and had the district with the lowest actual full value property wealth per pupil of any in the state (Salmon River). It was the wealthiest upstate region in terms of the mean actual value property wealth per pupil. The three richest districts in this region were Lake Pleasant, Long Lake, and Newcomb.

 

·        The Hudson Valley was the second wealthiest region, and had the third greatest range of extremes.

 

·        In comparison to the Hudson Valley region, the Mohawk Valley region was relatively poor, but had nearly as great range of extremes as the did the Hudson Valley region. The richest district in this region was Webb.

 

 

 

 

Table 3: The Number of Districts That The Average Actual Value Property

Wealth Per Pupil Of Each Labor Regions Varies From The Mean

  

  Capital Southern Tier West Hudson Valley LI & NYC Finger Lakes Central Mohawk Valley North Country
Below 1/2 state average 2 26 23 0 2 19 10 13 17
Below state average 48 65 65 27 31 59 34 47 44
2 x state average 8 3 2 31 41 0 1 1 9

 

·        As shown in Table 3 all regions had very poor districts except the Hudson Valley.

 

·        The poorest districts in most regions were widely dispersed geographically. In the Southern Tier, 9 of 9 counties have at least one very poor district; in the west 3 of 5 counties had at least one very poor district. The Finger Lakes had 4 of 8 counties with at least one district that was very poor, in the Central region all the counties had at least one very poor school district, in the Mohawk Valley 5 of 6 counties had at least one very poor district, and the North Country had 6 of 7 counties that had at least one very poor district.   

 

·        In contrast the richest districts tended to be more geographically concentrated than the very poorest districts were.

 

o       The Capital region had 4 of the 8 richest districts in Warren County.

o       The Southern Tiers 3 richest school districts were found in Delaware County.

o       Two out of Three districts above average in actual property wealth per pupil in the Western region were found in Erie County.

o       In the Hudson Valley 84% (26 out of 31!) of the richest districts were in Westchester County.

o       In the Finger Lakes more than half of the districts above the state average are in Monroe County.

o       In the Central region 4 of the 5 richest districts were found in Onondaga County.

o       In the North Country all of the 9 richest districts were found in Essex and Hamilton Counties.

 

 

 Table 4: The Income Wealth Per Pupil By Labor Region In

In Thousands Of Dollars, Rounded To The Nearest $1,000 (2001-02)

 

  Capital Southern Tier West Hudson Valley LI & NYC Finger Lakes Central Mohawk Valley North Country
Mean 01-02 $79 $57 $68 $159 $170 $75 $71 $58 $53
Max $216 $119 $160 $597 $954 $227 $180 $123 $95
Min $39 $35 $33 $44 $28 $41 $37 $36 $23
Range $178 $83 $127 $553 $926 $186 $143 $87 $72

 

 

·        As shown in table 4 the Hudson Valley and New York City Long Island region were 155% and 166% of the state average respectively and were the second wealthiest and the wealthiest regions in terms of income wealth per pupil.

 

·        In terms of ranges of extremes, the greatest extremes of income wealth per pupil were found in the two downstate regions, Hudson Valley and New York City Long Island. The Wyndanch district in Long Island is the fourth poorest district in New York State. Only 3 districts in the state, all in the North Country, were poorer.

 

·        The upstate regions have smaller ranges. These seven regions had range spreads one third or less that that of the two downstate regions.

 

·        The North Country was the poorest region in terms of income wealth per pupil and had the smallest range of income wealth per pupil. This region also had the district with the three poorest in terms of lowest income wealth per pupil in the state. These were Salmon River, Indian River, and Edwards Knox. 

 

·        The Southern Tier and Mohawk Valley regions were the second and third poorest in income wealth per pupil and had the second and third smallest ranges respectively. 

 

·        The Finger Lakes region had the greatest range of extremes of any upstate region in income wealth per pupil (in contrast to the actual value per pupil where this region had the least range of extremes of any region in the state).

 

 

Table 5: The Number of Districts That The Average Income

 Wealth Per Pupil Of Each Labor Regions Varies From The Mean

 

 

Capital

Southern Tier

West

Hudson Valley

LI & NYC

Finger Lakes

Central

Mohawk Valley

North Country

Below 1/2 state average

9 33 26 1 3 8 9 21 29

Below state average

63 73 72 39 31 61 36 52 63

2 x state average

1 0 0 27 25 2 0 0 0

 

 

·            As shown in Table 5 all regions had very poor districts.

 

·        The poorest districts in terms of income wealth per pupil in most regions were widely dispersed geographically. For example the Southern Tier had 7 out of 9 counties that had these very poor districts. Other examples were; the Western region had 4 out of 5 counties that these districts were found in, the Finger Lakes 7 out of 8 counties, the Mohawk Valley had 6 out of 6 counties, The North Country had 6 out of 7 counties, and the Central had 4 out 4 counties that these districts were found in.

 

·        In contrast the richest districts tended to be more geographically concentrated than the very poorest districts were. Some examples were:

 

o       The Western region had 7 of 8 districts that were above the state average in Erie County

 

o       The Hudson Valley had 23 out of 27 richest districts in Westchester County.

 

o     The Finger Lakes had 8 districts above the state average, and 7 of these were found in Monroe County.

 

o       The Central had 3 districts above the state average and these were all in Onondaga County.

 

 

Conclusions:

 

Everywhere you look in these regions there were high need districts. These districts were widely dispersed within each region. All this points to a tremendous diversity within each region. Across the state and within regions there is a great variation of school district tax bases. Hence there are districts in even the generally wealthier areas of the state that have limited local resources, and conversely districts in generally poorer regions that have considerable fiscal resources.