City & State New York | New York has updated its Foundation Aid formula for school funding with tweaks that did not make everyone happy, but did avoid last year’s vitriol from state lawmakers, teachers’ unions and school districts.

In the $254 billion state budget, Gov. Kathy Hochul and legislative leaders managed to reach an agreement on a $37 billion education budget. Census data from the year 2000 would be replaced with more recent census data on small-area income and poverty estimates, with data representing the economically disadvantaged community replacing the data on free and reduced lunches that is currently used.

All of the changes mean that New York City could lose more than $350 million in expected school aid. While the change in funding for schools with English Language Learners students would benefit New York City to the tune of $30 million by some calculations, some educational advocates still feel shortchanged by the budget.

“We are deeply disappointed that the budget introduced today will result in New York City Public Schools receiving hundreds of millions of dollars less from the state than they otherwise would have, had the Foundation Aid per-pupil funding formula been left untouched from last year,”  Kim Sweet, executive director of Advocates for Children of New York, said in statement. “While an overhaul of the outdated formula is sorely needed, the limited changes make matters worse, shortchanging NYC students as a result.”

For now, at least, the question of school aid funding will be settled in New York once state lawmakers pass the Education, Labor and Family Assistance budget bill.