11.20.2019 | amNewYork | Education advocates urged lawmakers to push to fully fund ‘foundation’ aid during a round-table discussion at Bayside High School in Queens on Tuesday. The meeting was the last of five round tables held to discuss school needs before a Dec. 3  state senate public hearing on the impact of the foundation aid formula. The round table was headed by state Senator Shelley Mayer, John Liu, Brian Benjamin, who were joined by fellow state Senator Liz Krueger along with members of the New York state education department board of regents and City Council member Mark Treyger and New York City DOE Chief Financial Officer to listen to community concerns. 

“If a child doesn’t have a notebook and they come to school…do we leave this child to just be unprepared all year? Or do we give this kid a notebook?” asked Thomas Sheppard, part of Community Education Council 11 in the Bronx. Sheppard, other CEC members and members of groups like the New York Immigration Coalition, Advocates for Children of New York and the Alliance for Quality Education agreed that the in order to best help students foundation aid needs to be fully funded ‘as it was intended.’ Read article