Where is Robin Hood When We Need Her? The Battle Over Equitable School Funding in New York State As we move closer to the April 1 budget deadline one battle will dominate, the issue is totally bi-part
As we move closer to the April 1 budget deadline one battle will dominate, the issue is totally bi-partisan, the issue is school funding. New York State both leads the nation in per capita school funding and the inequality of the funding, with little interest in repairing, or more accurately defining what you want to repair.
Taking from the rich and giving to the poor, is unlikely.
In the early nineties the Campaign for Fiscal Equity (CFE), led by Michael Rubel, filed a lawsuit challenging the funding formula. The case meandered through the byzantine alley ways of the courts and eventually Supreme Court Justice Leland De Grasse sustained the appellants (Read a summary of the “meanderings” here).
The Court concluded that “the Education Article requires the opportunity for a sound high school education that should prepare students for higher education, or to compete in the employment market of high school graduates” and to enable them to function productively as civic participants.
One of the premier law firms in the city, Simpson, Thatcher and Bartlett argued the case pro bono, the legal fees would have run into the millions of dollars.
My union assignment was to sit in on the case and provide notes to the UFT attorneys who were closely monitoring, I sat in on about 40 of the 107 sessions. Listening to witness after witness was fascinating, ripping apart the lawyers defending the state.
Governor Cuomo appealed the decision and the Appellate Courts affirmed the decision. Read a more detailed discussion here
While the CFE decision did provide additional funding for New York City it did not address how the formula impacts school districts across the state.
Schools are funded by local property taxes and state aid, primarily by property taxes, with a 2% cap on annual increases, in NYC, Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse and Yonkers, referred to as “the Big Five” the local government provides funding in their budgets.
Adams announced cuts in education funding in December, Mulgrew and a host of advocates shot back, and filed a lawsuit.
The lawsuit cites two different aspects of state law. The first is a provision requiring a “maintenance of effort” that’s part of the law granting the mayor control of city schools. The second is a section of the Contracts for Excellence law, which boosted state funding in exchange for lowering class sizes in the city.
“State law says very clearly that you cannot cut education funding when your revenues are up. You can only cut it if your revenues are down. Simply put, this fiscal year itself, our revenues are already up over $3 billion,” Mulgrew said. “Second, state education funding is here to supplement — supplement — local education funding, which means the city of New York cannot take its money out of education funding and replace it with state funding, which is what will happen if any of these cuts go through.”
Adams retreated and recently “found” enough dollars to rescind the proposed cuts. The city budget must be resolved by June 30th.The UFT is hoping to clarify the “maintenance of effort” issue in the state budget negotiations.
At the state level districts with homes assessed in the millions of dollar collect far more in property taxes than districts with less expensive homes, the difference is substantial. The state school funding is meant to even out the disparity, however, the bottom line, per capita school funding in high property tax cities is far higher than lower property tax districts.
In addition embedded in the law is a “save harmless” provisions, no district can receive less than it received in the prior year regardless of loss in the number of students.
Unanticipated increases in registers due to migrants is not reflected in funding as well as other antiquated poverty formulas.
If you’re a legislator in a higher property tax district, whether you’re Democrat or a Republican, you’re going to oppose any change in the formula that results in fewer dollars for your school district.
NYSUT, the state teacher union is sharply critical of the governor’s school aid budget proposal.
Hold Harmless: The executive budget ends the state’s guarantee that school districts get at least as much school aid as the previous year, a policy dating back to the 1970s called “hold harmless” or “save harmless.” This provision has allowed school districts a baseline to calculate future budgets and helped preserve programs and staff during times of uncertainty. Ending the policy would reduce budgets in 337 school districts by about $167 million total.
This is also the final year of the COVID relief dollars.
The UFT played a major role in the election of David Dinkins in 1989, fours year later, for reasons that are unfathomable, Dinkins failed to negotiate a timely contract. The UFT pushed back, demonstrations, rallies, media, and, finally in September 1993, two months before the election, he faced Giuliani at the polls, a contract was negotiated, the UFT membership had lost faith in Dinkins, the union made no endorsement and Giuliani won the election.
I’m sure Adams is a student of history.
While Fix Tier 6 and Mayoral Control will dominate the headlines the hassling over the budget is a very big deal with major consequences for schools across the state,
Mulgrew and his team artfully chooses the strategy appropriate to the issue. In Fix Tier 6 membership engagement, in the budget negotiations working with advocates, building coalitions, and, of course, the “behind the scenes” deal-making embedded in Albany politics.
“Preparing for a strike” is fruitless, and attacking an elected has to part of an endgame.
Tier 1 was created by Governor Rockefeller and the union because Rockefeller wanted teacher support in a planned presidential candidacy.
Governor Hochul signed the Class Size Reduction bill because her gubernatorial opponent was narrowing the gap and she needed the teacher union endorsement.
Albany politics can be a chess match and you hope your leader is a grandmaster.