Caption
Close
Albany
New York education leaders told lawmakers Tuesday that Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s proposal to increase state spending on schools by $961 million next year doesn’t go far enough.
They’re hoping for more than double that amount — an extra $2.1 billion for roughly 700 school districts across the state.
During three hours of budget testimony, state Education Commissioner MaryEllen Elia tried to make the case that anything less than that would shortchange the state’s growing population of non-English speaking students, teachers who need training to roll out a revised set of Common Core learning standards, and families seeking quality prekindergarten programs.
“When you look at the investments that we see in the executive budget, there are some major voids,” she said.
The biggest gap between the two proposals centers around foundation aid — base aid that is awarded to school districts through a complex formula that takes into account the level of student need and a community’s wealth in order to drive more funding to schools that really need it.
The governor has proposed a $428 million increase in foundation aid next year, but wants to amend the formula so that the state is no longer obligated to fund schools at a level agreed to by one of his predecessors, Eliot Spitzer. This sparked outcry from a number of education groups and some lawmakers, who say the move constitutes a repeal of foundation aid and returns the state to its old practice of “political horse trading” over school spending.
Elia, in her testimony Tuesday, reiterated the Board of Regents’ desire to fulfill the original foundation aid commitment — $5.5 billion over four years — and received some encouragement from lawmakers in return.
“I want to make it clear that any repeal of foundation aid in this budget by the executive is just completely unacceptable,” said Assembly Education Chair Cathy Nolan.
The aid was halted after two years during the height of the recession and has yet to be fully restored. Under the original commitment, school districts would still be owed $4.3 billion. The Regents are requesting this be doled out over the next three years, which adds up to a $1.4 billion increase next year.
Education officials also urged lawmakers to increase state support for the growing population of students who are learning to speak English. Currently, about 9 percent or 245,000 students statewide are attempting to learn English, according to the state education department.
Such students are far more likely to drop out or miss school than their peers, and score significantly lower on state exams. Graduation rates for this population fell 7.2 percentage points last year, a trend Elia called disturbing.
Regents are requesting an additional $100 million in funding to support these students, with some of the funds earmarked for translation services.
“We ought to celebrate the fact that we have diversity in this state and support those students the best we can, and his budget does not address that,” Elia said, referencing the governor’s budget.
Elia also tried to make the case that the state should develop a $30 million professional development fund for teachers, who will need training as they draw up lesson plans and curriculum around a new set of K-12 learning standards.
bbump@timesunion.com • 518-454-5387 • @BethanyBump
Our editors found this article on this site using Google and regenerated it for our readers.
