Citing the $13,000 that taxpayers shell out to educate a child in a public school each year, a New York City mother has asked a judge to grant her $26,000 so she can send her two children to private school.
Retired corrections officer Dianne Payne, who filed papers in state Supreme Court in Manhattan on Wednesday, is fed up with foot-dragging on a court order to pump billions of dollars more into the city’s schools, the New York Post reports.
Her 11-year-old son attends a public elementary school in Queens where only about half the students met reading and math standards last year.
Her 12-year-old daughter is in a gifted program at an intermediate school in Queens, but Payne maintains that there are no decent high schools for the girl to attend.
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A judge has ruled that city public school students were being deprived of a "sound basic education,” and last year said an additional $5.6 billion a year was needed to solve the problem.
Gov. George Pataki appealed the ruling, and the budget he recently proposed fell short of the court’s demand.
"My children can’t wait,” Payne told the Post.
"To assure that my kids get a good education and a fair chance in life, they need to attend a private school.”
Education lawyers in the city said Payne’s move has little chance of proving successful.