PRESS RELEASE jan 31 2006

The association of small city school districts board spent most of sunday afternoon last week reviewing the recently released executive budget for state fiscal year 2006-07. they concluded that Governor Pataki’s overall school aid package which totals $634 million in new money, or a 3.89% school year increase, is a relatively good start prior to the start of legislative negotiations but falls far short of its stated goal of helping poor schools. moreover, more than half of this money ($375.13 million) does not show in the released aid runs because it is to be held in a “Sound Basic Education Reserve”. Thus, school districts looking at their own computer runs of formula aids will only see a disappointing 1.79% average increase. Most districts use the governor’s aid figures to begin building the school budget in preparation for the may budget vote. A 1.79% increase will force many, particularly the poorest/high need districts, to make sharp cuts into essential program funding.

The net increase in formula aids of $275.32 contains the following provisions:

The Cuts:

· Once again the governor recommends reducing the reimbursement rate of Private Excess Cost Aid to equal Public Excess Cost Aid. This represents a reduction of $98 million in aid from last year.

· Tax Limitation Aid is distributed on a gerrymandered formula to benefit higher wealth districts on Long Island. The 35% increase in this aid is probably included to maintain the traditional “shares” of any increases in aid between and among regions of the state.

· Similarly, a new Fiscal Stabilization Grant of $40.20 million is added to New York City as a bullet item, to bring its increase up to the state average. This kind of patchwork gimmickry should be offensive to the courts and to every high-poverty district in the state.

· Transportation Aid, Public Excess Cost Aid and Building Aid formulas are left in place.

· Textbook, Hardware, Software, and Library Materials formulas are left in place.

· Once again the governor recommends the lesser of a freeze in BOCES Aid or the formula calculation, if it produces a decrease. This would have a far harsher impact on poorer districts such as the small city schools.

· Flex Aid (including old Operating Aid plus several others) is frozen. This is over half of the overall school aid, and is often more than half of all funding for poorer districts. This is highly disequalizing and a slap in the face to aid reform.

· The Sound Basic Education Reserve represents almost 60% of the total increase without any allocation formula specified. This amount could be used up merely to restore the proposed cuts in Private Excess Cost and BOCES Aid, leaving a truly disastrous year for the small city and other poor districts whose taxpayers and students are already badly served by state aid. In order to make any progress toward reform, the Legislature will need to add substantially to this package, and almost all of the adds must be highly targeted. Retaining the Governor’s proposed cut in Private Excess Cost Aid would free up almost $98 million for targeted aid.

Once again the executive looked out for wealthy districts on Long Island while ignoring the mandate of the Court of Appeals. As usual, the heavy lifting required to accomplish meaningful education reform is left undone.

STAR

The Governor also found another $530 million for a new $400 property tax rebate scheme for residents of districts that stay below the budget cap—basically, an heavy handed attempt to create an incentive to vote down the local school budget. The Governor makes no distinction between high spending, low tax districts, and struggling, high tax districts. This funding can certainly be put to a better use.

Education Tax Credit

The Governor found $400 million to pay for $500 income tax credits (read mini-vouchers) for families with incomes below $90,000 in school districts with under-performing schools.

The association’s president joan purtell, board member from binghamton csd stated “once again education funding is going in the wrong direction. only lip service is being paid to the need to strengthen schools in our poorer communities. the governor and the legislature need to stand up for the kids in our districts and do what is right this year.” she also said that there appears to be enough money available this year to allow the state to make substantial progress toward school aid reform. Unfortunately, it is often more tempting to do a large number of insignificant things than to accomplish any one important thing.