New York finally settles Foundation Aid debate (for now)

New York has updated its Foundation Aid formula for school funding with tweaks that did not make everyone happy, but did avoid last year's vitriol from state lawmakers, teachers’ unions and school districts. 

Foundation Aid uses a byzantine formula to decide how much funding New York school districts receive each year. Student head counts, local economic figures, regional data, student need factors and more are thrown together, added, multiplied and divided in a manner that boggles the mind but keeps the state’s education system chugging along. 

However, it has steadily risen in cost over the years, while also relying on information that doesn’t accurately reflect the economic reality in districts. Last year, Hochul tried to push through updates and cost-saving measures, including the removal of “hold harmless”, a provision that guarantees schools always receive as much, if not more, funding than the prior year. She ultimately compromised with the state Legislature, and the Rockefeller Center for Public Policy was commissioned to study the formula and come up with recommendations for an update. 

In the $263 billion state budget, Gov. Kathy Hochul and legislative leaders managed to reach an agreement on a $37 billion education budget. Census data from the year 2000 would be replaced with more recent census data on small-area income and poverty estimates, with data representing the economically disadvantaged community replacing the data on free and reduced lunches that is currently used.

Beginning in the 2027-28 school year, a regional cost index would be factored in, representing labor market costs of professions with similar credentials to educators. But Westchester County would be separated from the New York City metropolitan area beginning with the 2026-27 school year, meaning it would have a lower regional cost index than New York City but a higher one than the Hudson Valley. 

Additional funding would be added for districts with English Language Learners, and school districts in New York would receive a guaranteed 2% increase in funding year over year. There are also going to be changes to Board of Cooperative Educational Services aid and special services aid that would increase funding to the big five school districts in New York City, Yonkers, Rochester, Syracuse and Buffalo. 

All of the changes mean that New York City could lose more than $350 million in expected school aid. While the change in funding for schools with English Language Learners students would benefit New York City to the tune of $30 million by some calculations, some educational advocates still feel shortchanged by the budget. 

“We are deeply disappointed that the budget introduced today will result in New York City Public Schools receiving hundreds of millions of dollars less from the state than they otherwise would have, had the Foundation Aid per-pupil funding formula been left untouched from last year,”  Kim Sweet, executive director of Advocates for Children of New York, said in statement. “While an overhaul of the outdated formula is sorely needed, the limited changes make matters worse, shortchanging NYC students as a result.”

For now, at least, the question of school aid funding will be settled in New York once state lawmakers pass the Education, Labor and Family Assistance budget bill.