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More school funding from Albany to LI schools There's more money coming from Albany to Long Island's school districts as the New York State Legislature adopted its 2007-08 budget on time last week. While Gov. Eliot Spitzer's initial proposal called for nominal increases to schools in Nassau and Suffolk, intensive lobbying by Long Island lawmakers drove those initial figures up. In total, the budget provides an increase of $1.76 billion in education aid. "There has never been a better budget for education," Spitzer said. "We are providing ample resources, targeting them where they are needed most and insisting on accountability." But Long Island state lawmakers point out that if the budget is better for Long Island, it's only because they held the Governor's feet to the fire. "The Governor initially made a calculated decision to fund the rest of the state with money from Long Islanders," said NYS Assemblyman Andrew Raia (R- 9th District). "He increased spending by 8 percent but 303 Long Island school districts would have seen only a 3 percent increase. We dug in, and I and my colleagues, particularly the Republicans, hammered away until we got our fair share." The new funding will be tied to accountability measures. School districts will be receiving large Foundation Aid increases of 10 percent or $15 million. Those districts that have substandard performance will be required to develop a Contract for Excellence. This will commit school officials to ensuring that funds are being spent to produce measurable academic results by having smaller class sizes, increased student time on task, full-day kindergarten, teacher quality initiatives and middle school and high school restructuring. The FoundationAid formula is targeted primarily to districta most in need, with all districts receiving an increase of at least three percent. In line with the FoundationAid formula, originally proposed by the Governor, the enacted Foundation Aid formula links school funding to the cost of a successful education and alocates state aid in a transparent, equitable and predictable manner, he said. But the devil, as they say, is in the details, and while equity in state aid distribution has been a focus of state lawmakers for years, with some success, the numbers continue to show disparity. For example, Roosevelt and Wyandanch schools, two of Long Island's poorest districts, received an 8.58 percent and 10.87 percent increase respectively, while the Roslyn School District, a much wealthier district, received a 26 percent increase. And while some of that increase takes into account building and infrastructure improvement reimbursements, those districts struggling, continue to struggle. "Obviously there is more work to be done to bring equity to the system," said Assebmlyman Joseph Saladino (R-Massapequa)."This budget spends $8.3 billion more than last year's budget with New York City schools and programs receiving the lion's share of increases," said Saladino. "The governor has to remember that he's no longer in the Attorney General's office coercing and threatening corporate leaders," said Sen. Owen Johnson. "His job, primarily is to administer the state agencies, recommend a budget and it is up to the legislature to modify and adopt it." The largest portion of the statewide increase is going to New York City schools, which one school superintendent in Suffolk described as the state's way of "rewarding failure." "We cannot continue to go to our property owners and ask them to foot the bill, while New York City taxpayers to contribute less and get real property tax cuts, " said Mel Noble, superintendent of the West BabylonSchool District. "The state is funding approximately 33 percent of our budget now, down from 40 to 45 percent several years ago." For their part, local school officials said they are doing all they can to reduce costs. "We are working with the County Commision to reduce costs through shared services and to consolidate health insurance plans," said Neil Lederer, superintendent of schools in Lindenhurst and president of the Suffolk County Superintendent's Association."W e are not facing a spending issue; we have a revenue issue." The budget also provides the following funding changes: +a new STAR program cateogry for middle-class taxpayers and increased benefits for seniors. STAR benefits will increase by $1.8 billion or $5.3 percent over the next three years and be available to taxpayers based on income up to $250,000 a year on a sliding scale. Under the change 94 percent of all homeowners inNew York will receive at least some tax relief under the program; +expanded Child Health Plus for families with incomes of up to 400 pervent of the federal poverty level. This is expected to help some 900,000 uninsured adults and children obtain coverage. | |||||
