1. A minimum increase of $1.2 billion in funding over the Executive Budget is needed.
The Conference of Big 5 School Districts and the other members of the Educational Conference Board have put forth a proposal calling for a year-to-year school aid increase of $2 billion.
These additional resources are critical as all of the Big 5 member school districts are heavily reliant on State funds. The large city school districts have no ability to raise local revenue given their fiscal dependency and Mount Vernon and Utica are limited by the tax cap imposed upon independent school districts.
2. The Foundation Aid phase-in must be accelerated and flexibility maintained.
The State must provide school districts with an expedited Foundation Aid phase-in and commit to a funding formula that is transparent and affords school districts predictability. Students in the Big 5 member school districts should not have to wait for equitable educational opportunities.
School districts should also be granted maximum flexibility for community schools set-aside amounts under Foundation Aid.
3. The Executive Budget’s school-based budget reporting mandate must be rejected.
The Executive Budget’s proposal to link school aid increases to State Education Department and Division of Budget approval of detailed school-based budget statements must be rejected. This measure would apply to the Big 5 dependent school districts starting in 2018-2019. An additional ten school districts, including Utica, would be impacted beginning in 2019-2020. A mandate to report school-based expenditures already exists for all public schools under the federal Every Student Succeeds Act for federal, State and local dollars.
Furthermore, our school districts are already subject to numerous other financial accountability measures including Contract for Excellence expenditure requirements, set-asides under Foundation Aid and State and federal program and fiscal audits
4. The Executive Budget’s proposed cap on expense-based aids must be rejected.
The Executive Budget’s proposal to cap growth in expense-based aids including Transportation and Building Aids is especially problematic. Our school districts are engaged in major capital construction initiatives to modernize, renovate and expand their infrastructure and capping Building Aid would seriously jeopardize efforts to advance projects essential to their educational mission.
Furthermore, this proposal may force school districts to divert resources from the classroom in order to cover increases in debt service payments and transportation expenses.
5. Additional funding is necessary for English Language Learners (ELLs).
The State must provide more support for ELL students through a designated categorical program and an expansion of the weighting for ELL pupils under Foundation Aid.
The Conference’s seven districts educate 45% of New York State’s K-12 public school students including 69% of the ELL student population. Furthermore, the majority of pupils who are newly arrived to the United States, including many refugee students, are educated in our districts.
6. Special Services Aid and Career and Technical Education funds must be expanded.
The $3,900 per pupil formula-based funding cap under Special Services Aid must be increased and reimbursement should be adjusted to capture 9th grade students. In addition, additional resources should be provided to enable Mount Vernon and Utica to expand in-district Career and Technical Education (CTE) programs.
The New York State Board of Regents adopted Multiple Pathways to High School Graduation with the goal of expanding the delivery of CTE and improving graduation rates. The Big 5 member school districts are interested in building upon some of their extraordinarily successful CTE programs.
7. School Health Services funding must be restored, expanded and increased.
The Executive Budget cuts school health funding by $1.2 million for the Buffalo and Rochester school districts. These cuts must be restored and increases provided for all school districts receiving School Health Services funds (Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse and Yonkers). In addition, funding must be expanded to include New York City, Mount Vernon and Utica.
School Health Services funding has not kept pace with student health and medical needs and the growing programmatic requirements imposed on school health personnel.
8. Charter school expansion must be limited and the funding system altered.
Charter school expansion in saturated school districts must be limited and enhanced accountability measures applied to charter schools to ensure that enrollment accurately reflects district pupil demographics.
In addition, supplemental charter school tuition payments must be increased to protect school districts from scheduled tuition increases and accelerated in order to enable school districts to receive current year reimbursement. The Executive proposal to end reimbursement for New York City must be rejected. Lastly, Charter School Transitional Aid must be expanded to capture conversion and district-sponsored charter schools and extended beyond three years for all schools.
9. Summer School for Special Education reimbursement must be protected.
The Executive Budget’s proposal to alter the Summer School for Special Education reimbursement formula must be rejected.
While the proposed revision would benefit some school districts, others would experience significant cuts.
10. Additional targeted funding is needed for ongoing professional development
Additional resources are necessary for teacher and principal training and professional development initiatives for the Big 5 non-component school.
There is currently no targeted funding for these vital programs, which are essential to improving instructional quality and student outcomes as our districts move forward with implementation of the Board of Regents’ recently adopted Next Generation Learning Standards.
*Based on the 2018-19 Executive Budget Proposal
Download 2018-2019 State Budget Priorities here.
The Conference of Big 5 School Districts represents the city school districts of Buffalo, New York City, Rochester, Syracuse, Yonkers, Mount Vernon, and Utica.
Download the 2018 Overview and Data here.
Budget Testimony Before New York State Legislative Fiscal and Education Committees – January 31, 2018Presented By:
Georgia M. Asciutto, Executive Director
Conference of Big 5 School Districts
Good afternoon. I am Georgia Asciutto, Executive Director of the Conference of Big 5 School Districts. Thank you for providing me with the opportunity to testify before you today. I am joined by Dr. Kriner Cash, Superintendent of the Buffalo Public Schools; Mr. Jaime Alicea, Superintendent of the Syracuse City School District; Dr. Edwin Quezada, Superintendent of Yonkers Public Schools; and, Mr. Everton Sewell, Chief Financial Officer of the Rochester City School District.
The Executive Budget would provide a year-to-year school aid increase of $769 million. This includes a $338 million increase in Foundation Aid of which $50 million is a set-aside increase for community schools. This is a good start. However, it does not include adequate resources for urban school districts facing dire fiscal outlooks and already struggling to meet the growing needs of the pupils they serve.
The Conference of Big 5 School Districts and the other members of the Educational Conference Board have put forth a proposal calling for a school aid increase of $2 billion. These additional resources are critical as all of the Big 5 school districts are heavily reliant on State funds. Furthermore, the large city school districts have no ability to raise local revenue given their fiscal dependency and Utica is limited by the tax cap imposed upon independent school districts. There is no expectation that any of their respective struggling cities will have the capacity to increase the local share for education.
The Foundation Aid phase-in must be accelerated to drive additional dollars to high need schools. School districts deserve predictability with increases aligned to the unique needs of their students who should no longer have to wait for equitable educational opportunities. In addition, flexibility must be continued for the additional Community Schools set-aside under Foundation Aid to meet local needs.
Our six member school districts enroll approximately 45% of the State’s public school students and all are experiencing enrollment growth. A significant portion of this growth can be attributed to pupils who are newly arrived to the United States, including large numbers of refugee students who speak little or no English and are in need of expanded services and interventions. In fact, almost 69% of all English Language Learners are educated in the Big 5. More funding is needed to support additional bilingual teachers, translators and support services.
Despite the plethora of challenges and limited resources, all of our school districts have implemented a number of successful academic reforms and proven instructional strategies to raise student achievement. They are particularly interested in expanding some of their extraordinarily successful Career and Technical Education programs. We urge you to invest in Career and Technical Education programs by increasing the Special Services Aid per pupil formula-based funding cap and to align this funding with our district Career and Technical Education programs by expanding it to students beginning in grade 9.
Additionally, many of our pupils have limited access to health and mental health services outside of the regular school day. Each of our districts provides valuable health services to their students as required under Education Law. Unfortunately, funding for these services has been frozen for many years and Buffalo and Rochester will experience a reduction in School Health Services Aid under the Governor’s plan. We urge you to restore this cut, provide additional targeted school health funding for all member districts and expand aid to New York City and Utica to assist them with increased demands for school health services.
While we support school choice and affording parents the option to send their children to charter schools, we have serious concerns with regard to the current funding system. Supplemental charter school tuition payments must be increased to protect school districts from scheduled tuition increases and accelerated in order to enable school districts to receive current year reimbursement. The Executive proposal to end reimbursement for New York City must be rejected. In addition, charter school expansion in saturated school districts should be limited and enhanced accountability measures must be applied to charter schools to ensure that enrollment accurately reflects district pupil demographics. Furthermore, Transitional Aid must be expanded to capture conversion and district-sponsored charter schools and extended beyond three years for all schools.
We also request additional resources to support vital professional development initiatives for teachers and principals. The Big 5 school districts currently receive no targeted State funding for these programs, which are essential to improving instructional quality and student outcomes. We are pleased to see the inclusion of resources for the Smart Start program intended to support professional development and expand high quality computer science and engineering education.
Over 51% of the State’s special education students (ages 5-21) are educated in the Big 5 and the percentages of pupils with extraordinary needs in the Big 5 are staggering. We support the Governor’s proposal to provide relief to school districts from unnecessary special education mandates through a new waiver system. However, we call upon you to revise the Executive Budget’s proposal to alter the Summer School for Special Education reimbursement formula. While the proposed revision would benefit some school districts, others would experience significant cuts.
We also have serious concerns with regard to the Executive Budget’s proposal to link our school aid increases to State Education Department and Division of Budget approval of detailed school-based budget statements. The mandate to report school-based expenditures already exists for all public schools under the federal Every Student Succeeds Act for federal, State and local dollars. Furthermore, our school districts are already subject to numerous other financial accountability measures including Contract for Excellence expenditure requirements, set- asides under Foundation Aid and State and federal program and fiscal audits. We urge you to reject this new mandate.
The Executive Budget’s proposal to cap growth in expense- based aids including transportation and building aid is also especially problematic. Several of our school districts are engaged in major capital construction initiatives, as authorized in statute, and capping building aid could seriously jeopardize efforts to advance projects necessary to update some of the oldest and most dilapidated school facilities in the State. The cap could force school districts to delay or scale back construction projects that are essential to their educational program and negatively impact the students served. Furthermore, school districts may be forced to divert resources from the classroom in order to cover increases in debt service payments and transportation expenses. We call upon you to reject this proposal.
We are appreciative of the Governor’s continued commitment to expand prekindergarten programs for the State’s neediest school districts. We are also supportive of the focus on guaranteeing that no child goes hungry. We look forward to working with you in the coming weeks to ensure that the final budget provides the necessary funding for school districts to effectively implement the Breakfast After the Bell initiative. Lastly, we support the Governor’s inclusion of new funds for Mental Health Support Grants and are hopeful that support for these important programs can be expanded in future years.
Thank you for your commitment to serving the needs of urban education in New York State. We look forward to working with you in the coming months and stand ready to answer your questions or provide additional information.
Download file here:
Big 5 Testimony 1-31-18
School Aid Runs2018 – 2019 School Aid Run: Enacted Budget
2017 – 2018 School Aid Run: Enacted Budget
2016 – 2017 School Aid Run: Enacted Budget
2015 – 2016 School Aid Run: Enacted Budget
2017 – 2018 Description of New York State School Aid Programs
2016 – 2017 Description of New York State School Aid Program
2015 – 2016 Description of New York State School Aid Programs
June 19, 2018
SUPPORT
A.7966-C Peoples – Stokes Passed Assembly
S.6551-C Jacobs – Passed Senate
The Conference of Big 5 School Districts strongly supports A.7966-C (Peoples-Stokes)/S.6551-C (Jacobs), which would reimburse school districts outside of New York City for supplemental charter school tuition payments in the current school year.
This measure would eliminate the one-year lag for supplemental charter school tuition payment reimbursement that is currently imposed upon school districts. Under this proposal, school districts would receive reimbursement for supplemental charter school tuition payments in the same year in which the payments are made thereby allowing school districts to utilize their state aid increases next year without offsets. While the timing of the payments would change, there would be no fiscal impact to the State.
Our school districts are facing significant budgetary challenges and they cannot afford to advance funds for the State and wait until the following school year to be paid back. Requiring them to do so places an unnecessary and onerous burden on them, negatively impacts their ability to fully support critical programs and denies enhanced opportunities for their students. Reimbursing school districts in the same school year that these payments are made would free up scarce funds and enable them to put more resources into classrooms and toward efforts to improve student achievement without impacting the State.
This legislation passed the Assembly overwhelmingly by 137-1 this year and there is no reported opposition. For all of the above stated reasons, the Conference of Big 5 School Districts urges your support and approval of A.7966-C (Peoples-Stokes)/S.6551-C (Jacobs).
Download Support memo here: Support Memo A.7966C_S.6551C
June 5, 2018
OPPOSITION
S.6141-D Golden – Senate Finance Committee
A.8123-B Gottfried – Assembly Education Committee
The Conference of Big 5 School Districts strongly opposes S.6141-D (Golden)/A.8123-B (Gottfried) which would alter the procedure for parents and guardians to exempt their children on religious grounds from immunizations required to attend public school.
Current law authorizes parents and guardians to obtain an exemption from immunizations for religious beliefs through a procedure that enables school districts to thoughtfully consider such requests so that the exemption is not exploited. This bill would oversimplify the process by merely requiring parents and guardians to complete a form in order to receive a religious exemption.
There is significant research demonstrating that serious infection rates increase substantially when vaccination rates decrease. Infectious diseases such as measles, varicella, pertussis and polio occur at higher rates among unvaccinated students. One of the greatest benefits of vaccinating students is the concept of “herd immunity” which protects those students who are immunocompromised where exposure to the stated infectious viruses can cause serious illness or death. Immunocompromised students include but are not limited to those that are being treated for cancers, pulmonary diseases, thyroid disease, lupus, HIV and other conditions. This Legislation will make it easier for parents and guardians to avoid vaccinating their children which in turn increases the risk of preventable disease outbreaks and the potential for unnecessary illness and deaths, especially in immunocompromised students.
The Conference of Big 5 School Districts supports the rights of parents and guardians with religious objections to immunizations and believes the current procedures in place for obtaining exemptions are sufficient. This bill is unnecessary and could present a public health risk to public school children by increasing the number of unvaccinated pupils. For these reasons, we urge you to reject S.6141-D/A.8123-B.
Download Support memo here: Opposition Memo – S.6141D_A.8123B
June 5, 2018
SUPPORT
A.10427-A Barron
On 6/6/18 Assembly Education Committee Agenda
The Conference of Big 5 School Districts, on behalf of the New York City Department of Education, strongly supports A.10427-A (Barron), which would establish a new admissions procedure for specialized high schools in New York City.
The New York City Department of Education currently relies on the Specialized High School Admissions Test (SHSAT) in order to select students for enrollment at specialized high schools in New York City, with the exception of Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts.
This bill sets forth a new admissions procedure that would be phased-in over three years. Under the new system, seats at these schools would be reserved for middle school pupils with the highest averages based upon multiple measures with remaining spaces filled through a random selection process from a pool of pupils with a minimum grade point average.
The current admissions policy is overly restrictive with its sole reliance on the SHSAT. Middle school students in New York City should be afforded the opportunity to attend specialized high schools if they demonstrate excellence in their studies. This bill would expand the pool of eligible applicants and foster greater student diversity thereby resulting in enrollments that are far more reflective of District demographics.
For all of the aforementioned reasons, the Conference of Big 5 School Districts, on behalf of the New York City Department of Education, urges your approval of A.10427-A (Barron).
Download Support memo here: Support Memo – A.10427A
For immediate release – December 6, 2018
Contact: ECB Chair John Yagielski, (518) 810-8382, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Pointing to significant growth in student needs over the last decade, New York’s major statewide education organizations released a report today calling for a $2.2 billion state aid increase for 2019-20.
If enacted, the funding recommended by the Educational Conference Board (ECB) would enable schools to continue current programs and services for students and respond to an increase in student needs, which has occurred in all areas of the state and all types of school districts.
The paper points out that between 2006-07 and 2016-17, the total number of New York students receiving free and reduced price lunch increased by 15 percent; English language learners by 18 percent; and students with disabilities by 14 percent.
Meanwhile, the state is currently about $4 billion behind what is due to schools under the Foundation Aid formula enacted in 2007. The funding levels recommended by ECB would put the state on track to fully fund the formula within three years.
“The premise of Foundation Aid is that school districts will have the resources to meet student needs and provide them with a quality education,” said ECB Chair John Yagielski. “The changes in the last decade underscore the importance of a Foundation Aid formula that is funded and functioning in our state. Schools are charged with preparing students for a rapidly changing world and, with this paper, we have identified the state support that it will take to invest in their success.”
There are three components to ECB’s state aid recommendations for 2019-20:
ECB also outlined some longer-term recommendations to preserve and enhance the Foundation Aid formula, including updating the more than 15-year-old study that was the basis for the per pupil foundation amount.
ECB also recommends adjustments to the tax cap that would provide school districts and taxpayers with more stability, including providing for an allowable tax levy growth factor of at least 2 percent.
In the paper, ECB emphasized the importance of providing each district with a sufficient increase in state aid to keep pace with rising costs and escalating student needs, especially given that the tax cap limits the revenue that can be raised locally to support education.
“Absent the necessary resources, school leaders will increasingly have diminished ability to meet demonstrated needs while also continuing proven programs,” the paper states. “Enacting the recommendations in this paper would bridge the gap between current levels of funding and the programs and services that New York’s students need to be prepared for the future.”
The New York State Educational Conference Board is comprised the Conference of Big 5 School Districts; the New York State Council of School Superintendents; New York State PTA; New York State School Boards Association; New York State United Teachers; and the School Administrators Association of New York State.
CONFERENCE OF BIG 5 SCHOOL DISTRICTS
17 Elk Street - 4th Floor, Albany, NY 12207
Contact Us:
518.465.4274
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
