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School aid cuts not quite so deep after legislative budget
restoration
Funding inequities still not addressed under revised state
budget
While Gov. Andrew Cuomo and legislative leaders celebrate a
rare, on-time budget agreement, HFM BOCES school districts, like
others across upstate New York, are taking a close look at the
restoration of funds for education.
Negotiations in Albany restored $230 million of the proposed
$1.5 billion cut originally proposed by the governor, but the
aid distribution still reduces state aid to HFM BOCES’ 15
component districts by an average $800,668 per district – for a
10.36 percent decrease in state aid compared to 2010-11.
 “We
had to look carefully at the numbers because building aid is
embedded in the state aid runs,“ HFM BOCES District
Superintendent Dr. Patrick Michel said. “Building aid offsets
debt a district incurred in a previous year for a capital
project. It cannot be used for operating expenses.”
Capital projects are voted on by residents and approved by the
New York State Education Department. NYSED encourages districts
to renovate existing infrastructure by offering incentive aid
that reimburses part of a district’s building costs over the
subsequent 15-30 years.
“We realize this makes the year-to-year difference look less
severe than it is, but the true impact for children in our
region is a 10.36 percent cut in state aid,” Dr. Michele said.
Also missing from the new state aid runs is the federal
Education Jobs Fund money allocated in the 2010-11 base year.
While the money still exists—many districts held some or all of
it to use in the 2011-12 budget—leaving it out of the new aid
runs helps the state budget cuts look less severe.
The new state aid runs indicate a restoration of an average
$116,000 per district in HFM BOCES. However, nine of the 15
districts will receive less than $100,000 in additional aid,
while six of them will get less than $45,000 each.
 In
addition, the restoration of funds does nothing to address the
inherent inequities in the original Gap Elimination Adjustment,
or in the funding formulas as they currently stand. Where HFM
BOCES districts averaged a 1.56 percent restoration, the wealthy
Syosset district on Long Island, for example, will see 7 percent
of its GEA restored.
The GEA was first introduced for the 2010-11 fiscal year by then
Gov. David Paterson as a way to help the state manage its
funding deficit. Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the state Legislature are
continuing to apply a GEA for 2011-12 school funding, which
means school districts will receive less Foundation Aid than the
state is legally required to provide. The GEA is calculated
using a complex formula that takes into consideration a number
of factors. Many school officials across the state claim the GEA
formula is unfair to upstate schools, cutting aid to those
districts disproportionately to wealthier downstate schools.
Some of the poorest school districts are seeing the largest cuts
under the current GEA calculations.
The 127 public school districts on Long Island received $45
million in restored funding, or $354,331 per district on
average. The remaining 764 public school districts in New York
State saw $134 million restored to their funding, or $175,393
per district on average.
“The inequities still exist,” Dr. Michel said. “We use state aid
money to educate our children, where districts in other parts of
the state use their aid to reduce taxes for their residents. For
us and for our children, these cuts have a much greater impact.” |
