The New York State Senate majority held a roundtable on Long Island this week to figure out how to make state funding for public schools more fair to schools with extra needs.
New York uses a formula called foundation aid to distribute more than half of the state’s K-12 education budget.
Some education officials, like Glen Cove City School District Superintendent Dr. Maria Rianna, say the formula is using outdated information to figure out what schools need and to calculate poverty rates.
“I think there is a combination of factors within the calculation of foundation aid that doesn’t meet the needs of many of the districts because of the inaccuracy. It is old data that they are working with, and it has not been updated in many years.”
Long Island educators at the roundtable said they need additional funding to help a growing student population, with programs like English as a New Language and programs that offer free or affordable lunches.
State Senator John Brooks of Long Island says reform will take time to make sure everyone can provide input.
“We recognize that some of the assumptions we’ve made in the past are not correct, and most importantly we recognize that profiles of some districts are changing very quickly and very dramatically, and the needs for those districts are different than they were just two and three years ago.”
