Executive Director's Message
The State budget is finally adopted. We are grateful that we were able to successfully advocate for the restoration of the "save harmless" provision that the Governor had originally proposed to be cut, which would have reduced foundation aid by $43 million for Long Island School Districts.
We also successfully advocated to have the inflationary index increased from the Governor's proposal of 2.4% to 2.8% but short of the 4.1% that the formula called for. This means districts that received an increase in Foundation Aid received less than what they were entitled to.
We have already started our advocacy work for reforms to the Foundation Aid formula for next year. Last summer, N-SSBA spearheaded a workgroup of business officials from across Long Island to look at the details and mechanics of the current formula and explore what changes need to be made.
The main changes that we know need to be made to the formula are analyzing what it costs to provide a "sound basic education" to every student in New York State with today's mandates and expected services. The per pupil costs that the State must provide, as dictated by the Campaign For Fiscal Equity lawsuit fall into the following categories that have seen dramatic increases since the formula was created. They are; mental health needs for students, safety and security of school campuses, and increased costs for technology to meet the State mandate of computer based assessments, and cybersecurity infrastructure costs and needs.
The other major change that must be accounted for is how we measure a community's "ability to pay" and poverty rates in a school district. Using the federal poverty levels is both inadequate and outdated. N-SSBA has been working with the United Way to conduct a study of their ALICE (Asset Limited Income Constrained, Employed) measure by school district. The ALICE measure indicates what a survival budget for basic essentials for a family of 4 is in dollars and adjusted for regional costs, which is a critical component for our region.
These are the essential changes that must be incorporated into a new formula going forward and not just accounting for enrollment changes. We will also push back against the notion that if a district has reserves that are within the legal limits that they must be utilized to offset any reduction in aid the State wants to send to a district. We all know, you don't use one time revenue for re-occurring expenses. The State has reserves in excess of 15% and school districts are only allowed to have 4% in undesignated reserves.
We now turn our attention to the annual budget vote and trustee elections coming in May. As public school advocates, we must stress to our communities that voter turnout is critically important for many reasons.
We wish you all much success on your budget votes and trustee elections to help continue to build on the success of public education here on Long Island, which ranks among the nation's best. Carpe Diem!
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