Format for school-aid numbers criticized
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- March
- 31
  Some education advocacy groups have been critical of the way school-aid numbers appear in the $131.8 billion state budget lawmakers are voting on this week, saying they are misleading. The figures include economic-stimulus money to supplement the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act ($398 million for New York) and Title 1A aid for poor school districts ($454 million), federal funds that go directly to school districts. The separate pot of stabilization funds for education that the state received from the federal government do not show up in the district-by-district funding figures. The state used that money to eliminate a proposed $1.1 billion reduction in education spending.
  Most of the Title I and IDEA aid can’t be used by school districts to offset local property-tax contributions or to preserve previously funded services or positions, according to the state Council of School Superintendents. Since Title I and IDEA funds were not included in the 2008-09 aid listing, putting the additional stimulus funds for those areas in the 2009-10 budget overstates the percentage impact of that new aid, the group said in a statement.
  The Council of School Superintendents said its members appreciate efforts to eliminate some of the major education cuts from the budget proposed by the governor in December. But the budget freezes the state foundation-aid formula for two years, which means school districts have to turn to reserves, spending cuts and local taxpayers to fund their inflationary costs, the group said. Foundation aid is the largest state education grant to schools and is the major aid category that helps schools pay for basic operating costs like salaries, health insurance and utilities, the group said.
  “The freeze on foundation aid will probably hurt the state’s poorest districts most because they depend on state help the most,” said Robert Lowry, deputy director of the Council of School Superintendents. “Some of these poor districts have little they can cut that is not mandated. Also, trying to generate enough local revenue to match what they need from the state would require tax increases greater than their taxpayers can afford.”
  School district leaders are trying hard to hold down spending an tax increases in the budgets they will present this spring, the council said. Based on anecdotal reports, it expects proposed local tax increases will “average well below what we’ve seen in past years when state aid has been cut or frozen.”
This entry was posted
on Tuesday, March 31st, 2009 at 4:47 pm by Cara Matthews.
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