QUESTION
What challenges remain despite fully funding the foundation aid formula, and how is the funding currently being utilized?
0:51:05
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149 sec
Emma Vadehra explains that although New York State has fully funded foundation aid, challenges remain with utilizing the additional dollars, and discusses plans for distribution going forward.
- New York State's increases in foundation aid have been critical for schools and communities, allowing for class size reduction and support for high-need areas.
- The funds are built into the baseline budget, with additional needs for teachers and compliance.
- A significant portion of the funding goes into school budgets, with some allocated towards state-mandated requirements like special education.
- Despite the proposal to continue fully funding foundation aid, a change in inflation calculation may reduce expected increases for the coming year.
Althea Stevens
0:51:05
I guess, the similar question to what I asked, the the first panel, the senators who were here earlier, just thinking about we had a formula that wasn't funded for for so long.
0:51:18
And although it is fully funded now, I think that there's still obviously gonna be challenges.
0:51:22
And I think in this testimony, it was stated that even with the additional funding that that has already been allocated.
0:51:28
So could you guys talk a little
Rita C. Joseph
0:51:29
bit about what that looks like?
Althea Stevens
0:51:30
Because I think that is important for us to make sure that we are all at the same level of, like, just a basic understanding of even what that looks like and even thinking about how do we get to a place where we get a formula that is up to date, and that will be able to support students in a railway is gonna be really helpful.
Emma Vadehra
0:51:48
Yes.
0:51:48
Of course.
0:51:48
Thank you for the question, council member.
0:51:50
So I think there's 2 I think there's 2 pieces to what you just asked about and one is about what about the dollars we've already received and one is about how should the money be distributed going forward?
0:52:00
The state's dollars could also be a question about our dollars actually.
0:52:03
So in Okay.
0:52:08
In terms of the foundation aid, we've already received, we have the New York State has fully funded foundation aid.
0:52:14
And over the past few years, we've seen those increases, and those increases have been critical for our schools and communities just to be clear.
0:52:21
Those increases are already out in our budget out in school communities.
0:52:25
They allowed us to fully fund FSF.
0:52:27
They allowed us to put additional dollars towards our highest need communities.
0:52:31
They allowed for class size reduction and other efforts.
0:52:34
And they're built into our baseline at this point.
0:52:36
Right?
0:52:36
And so when we say we need another 10 to 12 1000 teachers, another 1.4 to 1.9 IBO in the same range.
0:52:44
That's on top of what we have without those dollars.
0:52:47
We would be we would need more money to get into full compliance.
0:52:50
And happy to talk more about where those dollars have gone, but the vast majority have gone into school budgets.
0:52:55
Some have actually gone to meet some of our other mandated requirements from the state such as special education mandates or charter school payments.
0:53:03
So that's where those dollars have gone, and the money is on top of that.
0:53:07
And as you heard earlier, while the state is is while the governor has proposed to continue fully funding foundation aid for this year because of a change in how she's proposing to calculate inflation, even that increase is going to be less than we expected to see for this coming year.
0:53:22
As Senator Jackson said about a $130,000,000, they got less in New York City.
Adriana Alicea
0:53:26
Yeah.
Rita C. Joseph
0:53:26
So that's why I think
Althea Stevens
0:53:27
that's just important to highlight.
0:53:29
Right?
0:53:29
And, you know, I'm usually not this nice to y'all.
0:53:32
So everybody has to take note of that.
