Regents Recommend $2.1 Billion Increase for School Districts

The Regents approved their proposal on State Aid to school districts.   They proposed an increase of $2.1 billion for school year 2019-20. This includes:

Foundation Aid phase in  $1.575 billion

ELL Support:  Foundation Aid setaside: an additional $85 million

Expense based aids  $410 million

Pre-k program consolidation  $25 million

CTE  $25 million

Grand Total:  $2.121 billion

The Regents proposal includes a minimum increase of one percent for all districts.

The proposal implements priorities in five areas:

•  Equity
•  ESSA
•  Early learning
•  ELLS
•  Efficiency

Foundation Aid still due is $4.1 billion.  This represents a $4.9 billion increase if the increase were phased in over three years.  The difference in the two numbers reflects primarily the inflationary increases that are expected to occur over the three-year period.  The Regents proposed increase of $1.6 billion for Foundation Aid, if maintained for three years in a row, would fully implement Foundation Aid.

Pre-k program consolidation. First consolidation happened in 2017-18.  This year an additional five programs will be rolled into UPK which results in an increase of $25 million (to replace retiring federal funding.)  The Regents propose an additional $26 million to increase the number of children served and to fund pilot programs to advance inclusion proposals for three and four-year olds.

The Regents proposal changes reimbursement for Special Services Aid for career and technical education programs in the Big 5 and other non-component school districts to a BOCES, expense-based, model.

ASBO Commentary on Regents School Aid Proposal

The Regents proposal is a focused proposal that puts Foundation Aid on the front burner. The proposed $2.1 billion increase is in line with ASBO’s proposal for 2018-19 and an increase over the $1.6 billion proposed by the Regents last year. It recommends a three-year phase in and is a strong statement for full foundation aid funding, a topic ASBO expects to be fully debated with strong interest in both legislative houses. ASBO’s past proposals have supported increased funding for CTE and early learning. What is disappointing is that the Regents inclusion of “Efficiency” as a priority seems to be empty of substance and does not address the rich array of recommendations ASBO has made in the past. ASBO New York expects to release its school aid recommendations in January.