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.
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.
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, in...

Gov. Hochul to Reveal School Funding in Address