As we await further details of the budget agreement, we know that the changes to the Foundation Aid per-pupil funding formula initially proposed by Governor Hochul would result in New York City schools receiving $350 million less than they would without those changes. Yesterday, while noting that nothing is yet in writing, legislative leaders indicated that the budget agreement includes only $140 million in school aid above the Governor’s initial proposal—an amount that, even if it were to go entirely to New York City, would fall far short of the need.

We are deeply disappointed that the tentative budget agreement would result in New York City schools receiving hundreds of millions of dollars less from the State than they otherwise would have, had the Foundation Aid formula been left untouched from last year. While an overhaul of the outdated formula is sorely needed, the current proposal makes matters worse — shortchanging NYC students as a result.

A funding formula that measures student poverty using the federal poverty guidelines alone, as Governor Hochul proposed, would disregard major differences between school districts across the State and fail to account for the fact that New York City is one of the most expensive cities in the country. The federal guidelines make no adjustments for the local cost of living; they are the same in the five boroughs as in a rural community upstate, a Midwestern suburb, or a small town in the Sunbelt. Far from “making common sense formula changes to improve our fiscal outlook,” as the Governor’s budget press release claims, the changes would cause NYC to miss out on funding intended to help support low-income students in a city where more than 146,000 students experienced homelessness last year.

Every day, we hear from parents struggling to get their children the educational support they need. At a time when NYC is experiencing record-high student homelessness, the enrollment over the past couple of years of tens of thousands of newly arrived immigrant students, an ongoing youth mental health crisis, the need to comply with the state class size reduction law, threats of federal funding loss for low-income students, and the recent expiration of federal stimulus funds, state leaders should ensure that any changes to the Foundation Aid formula help NYC schools address these issues and better serve students, especially those who need the most support to succeed in school — and certainly do not reduce funding intended to help support low-income students.