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Sponsors
3 Co-sponsors
History
- Referred to rules
Full text
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Sponsor's memo
BILL NUMBER:S7689
Title of bill
An act to amend the education law, in relation to foundation aid and the minimum local contribution thereto
Purpose
To provide more equity in the school aid formula for school districts with low income wealth.
Summary
Section 1 amends subparagraph 1 of paragraph (h) of subdivision 2 of section 3602 of the education law in order to adjust the school district enrollment level used in creating a total wealth foundation pupil unit.
Section 2 amends subparagraph 4 of paragraph (a) of subdivision 4 of section 3602 of the education law in order to provide equity in the expected local contribution formula.
Section 3 provides the enacting clause.
Justification
The state faces an ongoing challenge in the fair distribution of state aid to our public schools. While all schools benefit from increased funding, low-wealth and rural schools have unique circumstances that create inequity in the state aid formula.
A thinning tax base and low wealth make it difficult for rural schools to fulfill their obligation to provide the quality education that students deserve and taxpayers expect.
This is especially true in areas with decreasing population as schools are forced to increasingly rely on state aid to meet the basic educational requirements of students in their care.
Consequently, reductions in aid disproportionately impact these districts. While wealthier districts debate whether to curtail one of a multitude of foreign language offerings, arts or extracurricular activities, poor and rural schools struggle to meet basic educational needs.
In addition, existing school funding formulas fail to adequately account for the true financial condition of our rural schools. The existing formula is based on a scale that treats the poorest districts equally with districts whose residents have twice the income. The result is an unequal educational experience for students in certain regions of the state which is an issue that the Board of Regents highlighted.
This bill will reduce the floor of the income wealth index formula from .65 to .40 and also provide schools with decreasing populations with the ability to use the highest enrollment in a five year period when calculating total wealth foundation pupil units.
Legislative history
New bill
Fiscal implications
Unknown.
Effective date
This act shall take effect immediately.
Summaries, headlines and scores are AI-generated from the official bill text. How we score bills. Source: NYS Open Legislation.