We appreciate that Governor Hochul has continued to advance initiatives to support students, including through attention in recent years to literacy and youth mental health. Ensuring all students can read, get the mental health services they need, and get the tailored support needed to succeed in school requires continuing leadership and commitment from the State, including the allocation of sufficient resources to enable school districts to do the hard work ahead. The Governor and the State Legislature took an important step in fully funding the Foundation Aid per pupil formula in 2023 for the first time. However, the next step is to update that formula, which was developed nearly two decades ago, to reflect the needs of today’s students and rising costs.

The details of the forthcoming Executive Budget will be critical, as even small changes to the Foundation Aid formula could have a major impact on funding for New York City Public Schools (NYCPS) and school districts around the State. For example, one proposal for revising the poverty measure that was described in the state-funded study from the Rockefeller Institute would result in NYCPS receiving an estimated $392 million less than it otherwise would. The Rockefeller Institute’s proposal for changing weights for English Language Learners would also result in less funding to NYCPS at a time when the State should be focused on providing more support to this population of students. As the Governor moves forward with specific proposals, it will be important to carefully assess their impact on schools and students, including by modeling the financial impact of the package of changes proposed.

With more than 146,000 students in NYC schools experiencing homelessness last year, it is time for the State to add a weight to the Foundation Aid formula for students who are homeless and students in foster care to help schools address the unique barriers they face.

With the move toward universal school meals, the State should adopt the Rockefeller Institute proposal to use data on economic disadvantage rather than the narrow and flawed metric of eligibility for free/reduced-price lunch to allocate support to districts serving low-income students.

As the Governor and Legislature focus on affordability, it is important to update the formula’s Regional Cost Index, which is supposed to account for variation in wages in different parts of the State but has not been updated since 2006.

We look forward to working with state leaders to ensure the formula meets the needs of today’s schools and students, with a particular focus on students who need the most support.