Advocacy Moves the Needle on the Final Agreement

Strong advocacy and support from the legislature have resulted in an education budget that is markedly different from the proposed Executive Budget first seen in January. The briefing below provides a quick look at some of the key issues that may be of particular interest to school administrators. There are many more additional pieces that are interesting and more will follow on those items throughout the week.

  • The final budget offers a $1.1 billion increase in education funding over last year’s budget.
  • The final budget provides an increase of $272 million of Foundation Aid over the proposed budget and a 4.2 percent increase over last year’s budget. District runs may be found using the link below:

http://nyassembly.gov/2017budget/budget_bills/2017_2018SchoolAidRuns.pdf

In addition the budget provides:

  • An increase of $150 million for community schools.
  • An additional $22 million to expand Prekindergarten for 3 year olds and $5 million to expand new prekindergarten funding in high need districts without programs. Funding streams will be merged.
  • $5 million for Quality stars NY, which is an initiative to improve childcare and prekindergarten programs across the state using a research based evaluation and reflection instrument.
  • Expanded funding for new Early College High Schools—$5.3 million for new programs and $1.46 million for the continuation of existing programs.
  • An increase of $1.5 million to offset the costs of Advanced Placement fees for disadvantaged students.
  • $35 million for the Empire State After School grants.
  • $2 million for the management and operation of Receivership/Persistently Failing schools.
  • New tuition methodology for preschool integrated special class programs by April 2018.
  • Reimbursement and expense based aids have been fully funded—$295 million.
  • Charter School tuition increase in FY 17-18 of $500 over basic tuition and $500 additional supplemental basic tuition funding. Funding in the following years will be calculated differently and more details from SAANYS on this will be forthcoming.
  • New—$2 million to support computer science teachers.
  • New—$5 million for grants to reimburse nonpublic schools for hiring teachers in STEM areas.
  • Union dues will be an allowable deductible expense on state income taxes.

CTE aidable salaries were not increased were not included in the agreed upon budget. SAANYS will continue to advocate this item.

Throughout this week, continue to watch for SAANYS updates and more in depth information on the budget. Please call 518-782-0600 or email cgallagher@saanys.org with questions or concerns.