The power of protest through Education Finance

• In Event: Economics of Education

Proposal

All New York students deserve a high-quality education, from prekindergarten through college.
Governor Hochul will allocate a historic $34.5 billion in total School Aid, the highest level
of State aid in history. Funding includes:

• $24 billion for Foundation Aid – a $2.7 billion.
• $1.5 billion in new capital projects for SUNY and CUNY.
• $250 million of the historic increase in Foundation Aid to establish high impact tutoring
• $125 million expanding prekindergarten. State’s annual support is $1.2 billion.
• $270 million in new operating support for SUNY and CUNY campuses.
• $400 million in SUNY transformation capital initiatives.
• $500 million to create the first-ever New York State matching fund for contributions made to the endowments of SUNY’s four university centers.
• Governor Hochul will also eliminate the regional cap on the number of charter schools in New York City (1)
• The Enacted Budget authorizes the reissuance of 22 charters that were originally issued to charter schools that have since closed. (2)

NEW YORK STATE GENERAL INFORMATION
New York State’s has 673 major school Districts and educates approximately 2.4 million children in kindergarten through 12th grade. There are 4,414 Public Schools, 357 Charter Schools, 212,296 Total Public School Teachers. (4)
Public education in New York State total State, local, and Federal spending levels exceeding $75 billion, education is both the largest area of State spending and the largest component of local property taxes.
New York State has ranked first nationally in school district spending per pupil for 15 straight years. School Aid increases will total $11 billion over 10 years, a 55 percent increase over that period. (5)
For the 2022-2023 school year, when the total budget was $38 billion, New York City provides 54% NY State provides 36% The Federal government and other sources provide 10% (6)

Budget Highlights and actions:
The FY 2023 Executive Budget recommends $40.60 billion for the State Education Department, a decrease of $11.47 billion in funding from the FY 2022 a decrease in Federal pandemic relief funds that were appropriated in the FY 2022 Enacted Budget.
School Aid: The FY 2023 Executive Budget provides $31.3 billion in total School Aid for SY 2023, the highest level of State aid ever. This investment represents a year-to-year increase of $2.1 billion (7.1 percent)
Foundation Aid: Foundation Aid is the State’s main education operating aid formula. It is focused on allocating State funds equitably to all school districts, especially high-need districts, based on student need, community wealth, and regional cost differences. The Executive Budget provides a $1.6 billion (8.1 percent) increase in Foundation Aid, supporting the second year of the three-year phase-in of full funding.
Expense-Based Aids: The Executive Budget includes full funding of current statutory formulas that reimburse services from boards of cooperative educational services (BOCES), and the educational costs of certain students with disabilities. In total, these aid categories are projected to increase by $464 million (5.9 percent).
Prekindergarten Programs: New York State appropriates over $952 million annually to support public prekindergarten programs, providing access to over 136,000 students statewide.
Charter Schools: Approximately 180,000 students attend 331 charter schools in New York State. Increases New York City charter schools' per-pupil funding by 4.7 percent.
Special Education: Approximately 80,000 preschool-age children with disabilities receive services. The Division of the Budget will increasing providers’ annual funding by more than $240 million. (3)
Federal Policy and Funding Federal funding is one-third of New York’s budget. Total Federal Funds spending for all purposes, inclusive of both capital and operating spending, is expected to total $85 billion in FY 2023 and includes $15.1 billion in spending identified as pandemic assistance. Federal Funds spending in FY 2023 is estimated to increase by $5.5 billion from FY 2022. (7)
Historic New Investments in Public Education
Governor Hochul is fully funding the Foundation Aid, the State’s primary education operating aid formula, which allocates State funds to school districts based on need, community wealth, and regional cost differences.
Investing an additional $2.7 billion, an increase of 13%, a total aid amount of over $24 billion, focuses on students with the greatest needs.
New York’s education system will provide the highest level of funding per-student of any state in the nation. (8)
MORE SPENDING, FEWER KIDS
New York’s public school enrollment has declined steadily since SY 1999-2000, when it was more than 2.8 million, to fewer than 2.4 million in SY 2022-23, therefore, the increased school aid and declining enrollment have combined to make New York’s K-12 per-pupil spending the nation’s highest. (9)
SPENDING RISES, ACHIEVEMENT DOESN’T
Student achievement data indicate New York’s significant increase in school aid has not translated into results. The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), also known as the Nation’s Report Card, has not detected a “significant increase” in New York student achievement, in either reading or math, across biennial testing periods since 2007 for Grade 8 or since 2013 for Grade 4.
Looking at the state’s own assessments, more than half of students in grade 3 through 8 have scored below “proficient” in both English language arts (ELA) and math. In the most recent tests, only 46.6 percent of students were proficient in ELA and just 38.6 percent were proficient in math.
Higher Education
New York State’s higher education institutions educate over 1.1 million students, as reported
for Fall 2021 enrollment. These substantial investments of $836 million or 12.6 percent annual increase in the FY 2024 Executive Budget, funding for higher education will have increased by $2.1 billion (38 percent) over 10 years, from $5.4 billion to $7.5 billion. (10)



(1) https://www.budget.ny.gov/pubs/press/2023/fy24-exec-budget.html
(2) https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/governor-hochul-announces-unprecedented-support-education-fy-2024-budget-including-345-billion
(3)https://www.budget.ny.gov/pubs/archive/fy23/ex/agencies/appropdata/EducationDepartmentState.html#:~:text=The%20FY%202023%20Executive%20Budget,FY%202022%20Enacted%20Budget%20level
(4)https://www.budget.ny.gov/pubs/archive/fy24/ex/agencies/appropdata/EducationDepartmentState.html#:~:text=The%20FY%202023%20Executive%20Budget,FY%202022%20Enacted%20Budget%20level
(5)https://www.budget.ny.gov/pubs/archive/fy23/ex/book/briefingbook.pdf
(6)https://www.schools.nyc.gov/about-us/funding/funding-our-schools
(7)https://www.budget.ny.gov/pubs/archive/fy23/en/fy23en-fp.pdf p. 52
(8)https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/governor-hochul-announces-agenda-provide-high-quality-education-and-recover-pandemic-learning
(9)https://www.empirecenter.org/publications/testimony-on-fy-24-executive-budget-proposal-elementary-and-secondary-education-committee/
(10)https://www.budget.ny.gov/pubs/archive/fy24/ex/book/index.html

Author

• OSNAT ZAKEN, Touro University, Graduate School of Education