Public schools are in the budget limelight as local lawmakers call on Gov. Andrew Cuomo to modify aid distributions guidelines, while at the same time the state’s largest teachers union is suing to challenge the constitutionality of the state tax cap law.
New York State United Teachers President Richard Iannuzzi said every student deserves to receive a quality public education, but the tax cap inhibits school districts from this standard.
“In challenging the constitutionality of the tax cap, we are fighting for that principle,” Iannuzzi said, “just as we are fighting for the democratic principles of ‘one person, one vote’ and for the right of citizens, through local control of their schools, to determine for themselves how much they want to spend on their own community’s schools.”
NYSUT filed its lawsuit Wednesday, Feb. 20, the same day Capital District legislators called for increased state aid to school districts facing the possibility of becoming fiscally insolvent.
Senator Cecilia Tkaczyk, a former Duanesburg Board of Education president, said Cuomo has led initiatives to improve the state’s economy but properly funding education is a key element to ensuring progress.
“A strong, well-funded public education system is absolutely necessary to prepare the next generation of New Yorkers for the high-tech jobs of the future,” Tkaczyk, D-Duanesburg, said. “The proposals we’re making today will provide an investment in our children, without adding to the crushing burden faced by property taxpayers.”
The lawmakers’ letter to the governor proposed “equitable” restoration of gap elimination aid cuts by reallocating $203 million in Fiscal Stabilization Funding, $50 million in efficiency and performance improvement grants, funds targeted for bullet aid and any unused funds from 2012-13 competitive grants. They called for GEA restoration formulas to be adjusted to more fairly distribute funds.
Outside of GEA restoration, the letter requested $350 million in additional school aid funding, with priority for high- and average-need districts.
NYSUT spokesman Carl Korn said it was merely coincidental that lawmakers requested more education funding the same day the union filed its lawsuit.
“The state has shifted the burden of paying for education on the back of local property taxpayers,” Korn said. “Now it has put in place a property tax cap that is devastating to schools in the Capital Region.”
Assemblywoman Patricia Fahy, D-Albany, stressed securing more state aid is important this budget cycle, even in light of the lawsuit.
“Even if NYSUT was to prevail tomorrow it does not negate the need for (additional) state aid,” Fahy said. “I am sympathetic to what NYSUT is trying to do, but I don’t want to lose my focus on state aid. … I think their lawsuit probably has some merit.”
Fahy, a former member of the Albany school board, believes the lawsuit “does have a point” in challenging the supermajority requirement for school district budgets exceeding the tax cap. Many area school districts have spoken out against the requirement, which means budgets above the cap must pass by at least 60 percent instead of by a simple majority.
NYSUT’s lawsuit detailed declining state aid to schools, a $1.86 billion drop from 2008-09 to 2011-12 school years. The 2011-12 school year funding saw the state providing around 39.7 percent of school expenses statewide. NYSUT said previously the state’s portion of school funding on average across all districts was between 41 to 47 percent.
“Across New York State, superintendents, board members, educators and families fear that their schools will never again be able to match the opportunities they are providing to students now,” said Robert Reidy, executive director of the state Council of School Superintendents, in a statement. “Financial and educational insolvency are on the horizon for many districts.”
Cuomo’s 2013 spending proposal increased education aid by $889 million, or 4.4 percent, which Assemblyman Phil Steck, D-Colonie, commended the governor for providing, but also Steck joined area legislators petitioning for additional funding.
“We certainly want to work with our two former school board members, Cecilia Tkaczyk and Pat Fahy, to have any additional funding used in a manner that will best benefit the school districts of New York State,” Steck said in a statement.
Senator Neil Breslin, D-Delmar, also called for more state aid and said it was “critical” to provide adequate funding to schools.
“Our local school districts simply cannot absorb any more cuts,” Breslin said in a statement. “These cuts have already had a negative impact on our students with numerous educational programs being eliminated. Without additional state aid, our local schools will not be able to provide the top-notch education our students deserve.”