Our schools are losing money every year — and New York state is taking it from them.
“The state has reneged on its promise to fund schools appropriately and equitably,” said Dr. Rick Timbs, executive director of the State Schoolwide Funding Consortium. “As a result, the burden has been shifted to local taxpayers. And if they’re at all conscientious citizens, they should be interested not only that the cost has been shifted to the local region, but in the education those local regions can provide as a result. It’s not going to be as robust as it needs to be to boost the economic climate, particularly in this region.”
In order to address the problem, a pair of forums will be held Feb. 3 and 5 in Auburn and North Syracuse by the Central New York School Boards Association (CNY SBA) in conjunction with the Onondaga-Cortland-Madison, Cayuga-Onondaga, Tompkins-Seneca-Tioga and CiTi (Oswego) BOCES. The forums, which will take place at Auburn West Middle School and North Syracuse Junior High School, respectively, will focus on the major factors causing those financial issues and how school administrators, teachers and community members can make a difference. Timbs will be the keynote speaker.
The major issues districts face, according to both Timbs and CNY SBA Executive Director Charles Borgognoni, are the inherent inequality in the state’s formula for foundation aid, the main source of general operation aid, which is supposed to take into account student need and local ability to pay, as well as the Gap Elimination Adjustment (GEA).
The GEA was instituted by the Paterson administration in the 2009-10 school year to help the state fill its revenue shortfall. Essentially, the state allocates a certain amount of aid to schools each year, then takes away a portion of that aid through the GEA. If the amount of state aid allocated to schools exceeds the projected growth in the state’s personal income, regardless of the need projected by schools, the GEA is increased to contain overall growth within legislated limits. If state aid increases are less than that limit or of legislators choose to exceed the state aid cap, the GEA can be decreased. However, the GEA generally remains at the same levels year to year. As a result, local districts have lost millions of dollars promised to them by the state.
“Over its five years in existence, schools statewide have missed out on more than $9 billion in state aid,” Borgognoni said. “That’s money they’re promised, and the GEA just takes it right off the top. Going into this year, we’re looking at another $1.1 billion if no change is made. So that’s our first priority.”
Borgognoni pointed out that the state is no longer in the same fiscal crisis it was in when the GEA was instituted.
“We hear a lot of talk about how this administration and this legislature has turned the fiscal situation around in New York state, from a deficit of $8 to $10 billion to a surplus of $5 billion,” he said. “The Gap Elimination Adjustment was created as a way to help close the deficit. If we no longer have a deficit, why is the GEA still needed?”
Borgognoni said the foundation aid formula also needs to be changed in order to make it more equitable.
“You hear a lot of rhetoric about how New York state spends the most on public education [in the country], and that’s true,” he said. “But the way we distribute that aid, it doesn’t get to the children that need it most.”
Timbs said that inequity is doing students statewide a disservice.
“Wealthy schools — and we have none in this region — are doing just fine. But there are huge inadequacies in terms of funding,” Timbs said. “It does a huge disadvantage to kids in our region and across the state if you’re not a student in a wealthy district. Those equity issues have to be addressed. These kids are going to be hard-pressed to get into college or any post-secondary education. Their transcripts are not robust enough compared to their wealthier counterparts. If we want these kids to prosper, if we want them college- and career-ready, if we want the performance issues of our districts to be addressed, they have to be adequately funded.”
Timbs noted that the issue of school funding goes beyond the classroom; it also hurts the statewide economy.
“We’re trying to attract businesses and industries to the state, especially to Central New York,” he said. “And those businesses are going to look at how good the schools are, how robust the curriculum is. ‘What are my kids going to get in terms of an education?’ And when you compare us to wealthier districts, we don’t stand very well.”
But Borgognoni said it doesn’t have to be that way. If taxpayers and stakeholders advocate for change, he said it will create more educational opportunities for local students.
“It’s important for us to get our folks from the community knowledgeable and participating,” he said. “These are kind of the dirty little secrets of how education has been funded in New York state for a long time, for the last 30 to 40 years. It’s time for this to finally end.”
That will be the focus of the forums, which will be held from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 3, at Auburn West Middle School, 217 Genesee St., Auburn for districts in the Cayuga-Onondaga and Tompkins-Seneca-Tioga BOCES systems, and from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 5, at North Syracuse Junior High School, 5353 W. Taft Road, North Syracuse, for districts in the Onondaga-Cortland-Madison and CiTi (Oswego) BOCES systems. Participants will hear from Timbs on the state budget and its impact on local school districts. They’ll also learn how to advocate to their legislatures to make the changes necessary to create a more equitable school funding system.
“We feel as though, if we shine the light of day on the terrible things and the unjust things happening in New York state over all this time, people… will be motivated to be out there and interact with their legislators and let them know what their experiences are,” Borgognoni said.
He emphasized the importance of public participation in this endeavor.
“The legislators tend to focus more on folks from the community who come in than folks like myself or school board members or school administrators,” he said. “The people in the community are voters, but they’re also consumers who have a big stake in what’s going to be happening with their children in terms of public education.”
