Educators await governor’s budget proposal 

The Rockefeller Institute of Government, a public-policy think tank, fulfilled Gov. Kathy Hochul’s request last month by issuing a 314-page analysis of New York’s formula for allocating unrestricted funding known as “foundation aid” to nearly 700 public school districts, including Beacon, Haldane and Garrison — a system that many parents and educators believe is flawed.

At the same time, Columbia University’s Center for Educational Equity and the American Institutes for Research are publishing additional reports with recommendations for a more equitable distribution of educational dollars. The partnership is led by Michael Rebell, an attorney who in 1993 brought the lawsuit that, 14 years later, forced state leaders to begin sending foundation aid to schools. 

But the million-dollar — or in this case, $25 billion — question is what Hochul will recommend when she presents her 2025-26 budget proposal during the annual State of the State address on Tuesday (Jan. 14) in Albany. 

Gov. Kathy Hochul Governor’s Office
Gov. Kathy Hochul has been touring the state to promote her State of the State proposals. (Governor’s Office)

This year’s budget includes $25 billion in foundation aid, an increase of $934 million over 2023-24, but it almost didn’t. Hochul last year raised alarms by proposing a budget that would have seen more than 300 districts, including Beacon and Garrison, receive less aid than the year before. Beacon, the largest of the three districts, would have lost about $1.3 million, or 6 percent, compared to 2023-24. 

By mid-April, however, the governor and Legislature agreed on a final spending plan that restored Beacon’s foundation aid to $21.3 million, the same as the year before. (Districts receive other state aid, but because foundation aid is the largest source and there are no restrictions on how the funds can be spent, it is considered the most critical.)

Foundation aid accounts for about 25 percent of Beacon’s $84 million budget. By contrast, the Garrison district received $600,000 in 2024-25, or 4.5 percent of its $13.4 million budget. Haldane received $2.9 million, or 10 percent of its $29.2 million budget.

The final state budget last year also included $2 million for the Rockefeller Institute to study the foundation aid formula. When it released its report on Dec. 2, after holding five public hearings and parsing 1,800 written comments, the institute largely agreed with critics, saying the state should update poverty measures to better reflect economic distress, update cost-of-living differences, account for the greater instructional needs for new English language learners and change the formula to remove some elements better treated separately.

The report also acknowledged that districts face burdens that previous generations did not, such as providing mental health services and the transition to electric buses.

The New York State School Boards Association (NYSSBA) called the Rockefeller report “a worthwhile starting point” but noted that, given the quick turnaround, its recommendations “understandably lack the type of detail necessary to know how they will impact individual school districts.”

NYSSBA also addressed recommendations regarding “hold harmless,” or the guarantee that a district won’t receive less one year than it did the year before, saying the report proposes formula changes that would likely lead to reductions in foundation aid for many districts.

flow chart
This chart provided by the Beacon school board shows the complex formula used to calculate foundation aid.

Melinda Person, the president of New York State United Teachers, which represents nearly 700,000 current and retired educators, said in a statement that her organization is concerned about suggestions that “arbitrarily lower the foundation aid amount instead of considering the necessary support for our schools’ evolving student populations.” Changes to the formula “must prioritize stability and predictability,” she said. 

Since October, the Columbia University and American Institutes for Research coalition (CEE/AIR) has published 10 bulletins and short reports as its study continues. On Dec. 18, the agencies issued their response to the Rockefeller report, including a half-dozen “actions the governor and Legislature should take in the 2025 legislative session.”

Those recommendations include continuing to use the national consumer price index (CPI) as the inflationary tool to determine aid allocations, rather than an average of CPI rates over the last 10 years, as Hochul has proposed. 

The agencies also suggest continuing “hold harmless” for at least another year, despite decreases in student enrollment. That would benefit Beacon, which, according to the most recent state data, lost 675 students between 2012-13 and 2023-24.  

state aid to schools

Other recommendations include state funding for “urgent current needs,” such as homeless and migrant students, and, echoing a Rockefeller proposal, increased funding for school-based centers that provide mental health support for low-income students and emulating the shared-services approach used by Boards of Cooperative Educational Services (BOCES) in lieu of establishing health clinics in every school. 

Finally, CEE/AIR suggested delaying unfunded state mandates, including Hochul’s order that all school bus fleets be fully electric by 2035. The Rockefeller Institute report asks the state to fully underwrite the cost of the electric bus mandate, while CEE/AIR said the mandate should be delayed for a year while alternative financing measures are considered.

The agencies said the governor and Legislature should begin developing a new foundation aid formula “as the first order of educational business in the 2025 legislative session,” which began Wednesday (Jan. 8). 

Behind The Story

Type: News

News: Based on facts, either observed and verified directly by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.

Jeff Simms has covered Beacon for The Current since 2015. He studied journalism at Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina. From there he worked as a reporter for the tri-weekly Watauga Democrat in Boone and the daily Carroll County Times in Westminster, Maryland, before transitioning into nonprofit communications in Washington, D.C., and New York City. He can be reached at [email protected].