The Adirondacks contain vast amounts of publicly-conserved wilderness, privately-owned protected and “camp” land, logging land, industrial centers, and more residential areas. The people who live, work, and own these parcels each have different interests and relate to the park in a different way. However, it is primarily the “regular” people of the Adirondacks – the people that work its 1,300 small farms (Adirondack Harvest 2021) and 14 correctional facilities (Grant), among other industries – that use and interact with its public education system. Education in the Adirondack State Park reflects the dynamic, complex nature of the park’s population and relationship to New York State.
The towns of the Adirondack State Park derive significant portions of their income (through taxes, to support budgets) from property taxes paid by people and entities that do not reside full time in the park. Land purchases by NY State to preserve large sections of the wilderness can have huge monetary implications for towns and often influence the quality of the education provided. In 2003, the State proposed buying 6,300 acres of land in Newcomb, which was estimated to bring in an additional $10,000 “for the town, county, and school district.” (Melewski 2021) Despite the fact that state land purchases may limit economic exploitation, increase the taxable value of the land, “allowing local governments to collect more tax,” (Melewski 2021) because the State does not receive various tax exemptions granted to private landowners. Higher spending per student is often believed to correspond to better education (as a result of lower student : teacher ratios and better access to resources). In the park, the highest spending per student is found in small schools in central towns (Jenkins). Small schools in central towns also tend to be located near forest preserve lands (which pay high taxes to the town as mentioned above), suggesting that State taxes paid to towns may impact educational quality. The following land designation map from the Adirondack Atlas (Figure 1) shows the locations remote towns (orange, red, and yellow) surrounded by protected land (green), which may have better school systems as a result:
Figure 1. Land use designations in the Adirondack State Park (Jenkins). Each color represents a different land use allowed by NY State law.
While the Park has lower student : teacher ratio than the rest of the state, the percentage of adults with a high school degree was 74% (14% of which hold college degrees), while 25.8% and 21.6% of adults in New York State hold high school diplomas and college degrees, respectively (Duffin 2021). This may suggest that Adirondack schools graduate high percentages of students without giving them the tools to move onto college, or that students are economically disadvantaged and so join the workforce instead. However, I believe that it is more likely that the New York state statistics are impacted by the number of immigrants that enter the U.S. through, or find themselves in, New York City – and that these people impact the data of the entire state. Adult immigrants that arrive in the state do not pass through its public education system. As a result, their college matriculation rate is not reflective of the state’s public school system. While schools within the Park tend to spend more per student than the State as a whole (based on analysis of school district data from Breidenbach 2020 and NY State data from McMahon 2020), the education system of the rest of the state may still outperform the Park’s system. This hypothesis is supported by statistics that suggest that spending per student is not correlated with the percentage of students going to college, despite its positive impact on educational quality (Jenkins).
A further complicating factor in the park’s education system is enrollment decreases – a phenomenon seen state-wide. As enrollments decrease, funding-cuts and school closures may be called for, as has been occurring in Vermont (Russo-Savage 2021). This could further complicate the funding situation, as well as impacting educational resources and quality. One further worry of conservationists is that Adirondack politicians may “focus [blame] on environmental protections” (Bauer 2020) causing higher emigration and lower immigration from and to the park.
References
Bauer, P. (2020, February 2). Statewide, Adirondack School Enrollment Declines. Adirondack Almanac. Retrieved September 24, 2021, from https://www.adirondackalmanack.com/2020/02/statewide-adirondack-school-enrollment-declines.html
Breidenbach, M. (2020, June 9). NY school budgets 2020: How much does each district spend per student? (Lookup). syracuse.com. Retrieved September 24, 2021, from https://www.syracuse.com/schools/2020/06/ny-school-budgets-2020-how-much-does-each-district-spend-per-student-lookup.html
Duffin, E. (2021, September). Educational attainment distribution in New York in 2019 [Chart]. Statistica. https://www.statista.com/statistics/306988/educational-attainment-new-york/
Farming in the Adirondacks. (2021). Adirondack Harvest. Retrieved September 24, 2021, from https://adirondackharvest.com/farming-in-the-adirondacks/
Grant, R. (Ed.). (n.d.). Upstate New York Prisons & Adirondack Correctional Facilities Directory. Adirondacks.com. Retrieved September 23, 2021, from http://www.adirondacks.com/corrections.html
Jenkins, J., & Keal, A. (2004). The Adirondack atlas: A geographic portrait of the Adirondack Park. Syracuse University Press.
McMahon, E.J. (2020, May 11). NY school spending hits new record. Empire Center. Retrieved September 24, 2021, from https://www.empirecenter.org/publications/ny-school-spending-hits-new-record/
Russo-Savage, D. (2021). Merger Activity. State of Vermont Agency of Education. Retrieved September 24, 2021, from https://education.vermont.gov/vermont-schools/school-governance/merger-activity
Tahawus Tract State Land Purchase: Tax Implications for the Town of Newcomb [Review Tahawus Tract State Land Purchase: Tax Implications for the Town of Newcomb, by B. C. Melewski, Dir., D. M. Gahl]. (2003, August). Retrieved September 24, 2021, from https://www.adirondackcouncil.org/vs-uploads/special_reports_archive/1341942651_Tahawus_Tract_State_Land_Purchase.pdf