New York has updated its Foundation Aid formula for school funding with tweaks that did not make everyone happy, but did avoid last year’s vitriol from state lawmakers, teachers’ unions and school districts.
Foundation Aid uses a byzantine formula to decide how much funding New York school districts receive each year. Student head counts, local economic figures, regional data, student need factors and more are thrown together, added, multiplied and divided in a manner that boggles the mind but keeps the state’s education system chugging along.
However, it has steadily risen in cost over the years, while also relying on information that doesn’t accurately reflect the economic reality in districts. Last year, Hochul tried to push through updates and cost-saving measures, including the removal of “hold harmless”, a provision that guarantees schools always receive as much, if not more, funding than the prior year. She ultimately compromised with the state Legislature, and the Rockefeller Institute of Government was commissioned to study the formula and come up with recommendations for an update…