CityAndStateNY.com
October 18, 2021
Flush with cash, short on oversight
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N A LONG-AWAITED victory for parents and education advocates, the state Legislature in April secured a major budget accomplishment: providing full funding for Foundation Aid, the state funding formula that distributes more resources to highneed schools. Lawmakers appropriated $1.4 billion more toward Foundation Aid in the state’s fiscal year 2021-2022 budget, with a commitment to fully funding Foundation Aid over the next three years. After that, the funding would become permanent. It was the result of a decade of activism pushing the state to fulfill its obligation to schools under the 2006 state court decision in Campaign for Fiscal Equity v. State of New York. This month, Gov. Kathy Hochul reiterated her commitment to fully funding Foundation Aid going forward. This year’s public school funds also include a nearly $9 billion boost of federal funding for schools under the American Rescue Plan Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief. The influx of cash is distributed through the state Department of Education. The department approves school districts’ spending plans and routes the government funds to each district, where the money is distributed to individual schools. The New York City school district, encompassing 1,876 schools, is set to receive nearly $12 billion from the state plus another $7 billion in federal rescue plan funding over the next three years. But six months after the budget was approved, some education justice advocates and local officials say that New York City’s Department of Education, as well as some other school districts, have not complied with the state mandate of including input from parents, teachers and community members in their spending plans. Some have raised concerns over the lack of specifics and transparency in the plans, which they argue could jeopardize the historic infusion of state and federal funding to New York’s public school system. “What we don’t want to happen is that we spend all this money on education and then the critics come back and say, ‘See, students aren’t doing better and money doesn’t matter because money was wasted, or there was fraud or abuse,’” said Jas-
Parents and education advocates want more of a say on how to spend an influx of school funding from the state and federal governments.
mine Gripper, executive director of the Alliance for Quality Education. A requirement set by the Legislature for school districts receiving an increase in Foundation Aid funding of more than 10% or $10 million is that school districts’ spending plans must include input from parents, educators and other stakeholders. The plans had to be publicly adopted no later than July 1, 2021 (a similar mandate clause also applies for school districts receiving federal rescue plan funds).
By Natasha Ishak
“I think the benchmarks are really the key thing that’s missing,” said Gripper, whose organization reviewed spending plans released by several school districts. One example she pointed to was the list item in the city DOE’s spending plan which stated the department will use $378 million from their total funding on 3-K for All. But Gripper noted the plan did not elaborate on specifics regarding how that funding for universal 3-K was going to be implemented over the next three years.
ED REED/MAYORAL PHOTOGRAPHY OFFICE; ERIC MCNATT
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