In 2024, New York State must:
Maintain 100% of Foundation Aid to all school districts
Update the Foundation Aid Formula ($1 million)
The Foundation Aid formula was created over a decade ago, and does not fully capture the current cost of educating students. It is time for New York State to conduct a new costing out study and update the formula. We urge leaders to provide the State Education Department with the resources to engage with education finance experts to evaluate and revise the Foundation Aid formula while maintaining the principles of equity. This process must be inclusive and collaborative by engaging parents, students, teachers and community members.
Ensure that students continue to have the programs they need so they have the opportunity to learn: Provide funding to avoid any funding gap created by the expiration of Federal Aid (est. $2 billion)
Students’ opportunity to learn, and all the conditions, strategies that help them access that opportunity, must be at the center of our public education system. Over the pandemic, students’ needs were illuminated and amplified. The trauma the students and their families experienced, even before the pandemic and through it, the resources that came to our state help some school districts to fund strategies and programs to address them. These resources must continue in all the school districts that need them so that students continue to have the opportunity to learn. Ensure that school districts in danger of cutting programs, services and staff because of the expiration of the federal relief funding have the amount they need to continue to fund those programs. We estimate that approximately a quarter of the federal funding that was provided to school districts between 2020 and 2021 is funding programs necessary to meet students’ needs.
View our other 2024 priority campaigns.
Publications & Resources
Connecting the Dots on School Funding (March 2024)
Gov. Hochul’s Foundation Aid Cut
Moving New York Toward Educational Equity (September 2023)
Improving the Foundation Aid Formula (May 2023)
See all our latest publications here.
Take Action
See all our latest petitions and letter campaigns to contact your elected officials.
You can also look up your State Legislators and their contact information.