Gov. Hochul is backing down on plans to overhaul state school aid this year — vowing to revisit the formula next year when districts have more notice.
On the line for New York City public schools is $130 million in state funding they’d been anticipating without Hochul’s proposed change to how inflation is calculated, according to officials.
“We’ve talked about putting a process in place,” Hochul said at a news conference Thursday in Albany, “so by this time next year, giving everybody the notice and warning that they all asked for, there will be a different formula.
“And I’m just deciding with the leaders how that mechanism will work. But I think it’s going to put us all in a much better place.”
She still held the formula is outdated and that while some districts are receiving funds for empty seats, others have additional needs such as a growing immigrant school-aged population.
Hochul’s proposal would have scrapped a provision that guarantees school districts at least the same aid as the previous year and calculated inflation differently — changes the governor’s office previously defended as common sense.
Both state education Commissioner Betty Rosa and NYC Schools Chancellor David Banks, joining several lawmakers and advocates who have railed for months against the plan, opposed it during a February legislative budget hearing.
While the state education department has called for changes to the formula, Rosa criticized the governor’s plan at the time as “so abrupt.” The agency is asking for funding to study changes.
State Sen. John Liu (D-Queens) predicted the city would get full funding for the coming fiscal year.
He added there was no appetite in the Legislature to “suddenly pull the rug out from under” half the school districts in the state.
“There are lots of agreements on different things,” said Liu, chair of the NYC Education Committee. “But nothing’s totally final until the lady sings.”
