The Official Blog of the New York State Council of School Superintendents
The New York State Council of School Superintendents is the professional association of over 800 superintendents and other school district leaders. The Council helps its members succeed through advocacy and professional development.
The superintendents' vantage point on education policy involves balancing what schoolchildren need and what taxpayers can afford, and requires translating statewide and national policies into local practices that can work for the communities they serve.
January 3rd, 2012 by Robert Lowry
In this post:
Category: Finance, Legislation, State Budget, Teachers | 1 Comment »
December 15th, 2011 by Robert Lowry
The Board of Regents adopted its School Aid proposal for 2012-13 this week.
The Regents proposal would attempt to re-start the Foundation Aid formula which was first enacted in 2007 as a resolution of the Campaign for Fiscal Equity’s challenge to the constitutionality of the state’s system of funding public schools.
Big increases in Foundation Aid were approved in 2007-08 and 2008-09, but the formula has been frozen for the past three years.
Meanwhile total aid from all formulas (excluding Building Aid and Universal Prekindergarten) has been reduced through large “Gap Elimination Adjustments” in each of the last two years.
The Regents propose an overall increase in aid of $805 million or 4.1 percent, consistent with the unique two-year appropriation for School Aid in the current state budget.
Category: Finance, State Budget | 4 Comments »
December 7th, 2011 by Robert Lowry
Yesterday, Governor Cuomo, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos announced agreement on a package of legislation expected to be approved during a special legislative session this week.
The agreement improves the outlook for School Ai in next year’s state budget.
Category: Finance, State Budget | 1 Comment »
December 1st, 2011 by Robert Lowry
A summary of state budget deficit forecasts and School Aid projections…
Category: Finance, State Budget | 1 Comment »
October 18th, 2011 by Robert Lowry
A week ago, we released our report, At the Edge: A Survey of New York State School Superintendents on Fiscal Matters.
It has generated a lot of attention.
I was invited to discuss the report with Liz Benjamin on Time Warner cable’s Capital Tonight statewide television show.
Superintendent Neil O’Brien of Port Byron (Cayuga County, west of Syracuse) and I discussed it with Susan Arbetter on the statewide Capitol Pressroom radio show.
It received a good amount of print coverage. I think Gannett News Service did the best piece, running in many of their papers. See this version from yesterday’s Rochester Democrat and Chronicle as an example.
A Sunday editorial in the Albany Times Union said, “The superintendents’ report should be required reading.”
UPDATE: And on Wednesday (October 19), as reported in the New York Daily News, U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer cited our report in advocating for part of the President’s jobs plan.
Category: Finance, State Budget | 5 Comments »
October 12th, 2011 by Robert Lowry
Yesterday, the Council issued a report on its survey of superintendents on school budgeting issues.
The report, titled At the Edge, is available here.
A presentation summarizing the survey is here.
A key theme of the report is that although schools absorbed one of the biggest cuts in state aid ever in 2011, and now face operating under a property tax cap, this was not the first tough year.
State aid was also cut in 2010-11 and most aid was frozen in 2009-10. At the same time, schools have had to absorb steep increases in pension and health insurance costs.
As a result, going forward, schools find it harder and harder to make cuts that don’t cut jobs or hurt student services.
A spokesman for Governor Cuomo responded to the report by saying, “The schools and school districts chose to make these reductions in the classroom rather than dip into their reserves, cut back on the bureaucracy or reduce the growing number of administrators.”
But the report plainly contradicts these claims.
Nearly 90 percent of superintendents are concerned by the extent to which their districts are already relying upon reserves to fund operating costs. Without the reserves used this year, their districts would have had to cut spending by over 4 percent, raise taxes by an additional 7 percent, or adopt some combination of the two.
The report also shows that districts cut administrative positions more steeply than teaching jobs. Superintendents reported eliminating an average of 7.5 percent of administrator positions in 2011-12, compared to 4.3 percent of their teaching staff.
Category: Finance, State Budget | 1 Comment »
September 24th, 2011 by Robert Lowry
The 2011-12 state budget took the unusual step of enacted a two-year appropriation for School Aid, covering both the current and 2012-13 school years.
Under the enacted state budget, School Aid for 2012-13 is projected to increase by $805 million, or 4.1 percent.
Is this a ceiling or a floor, and whichever it is, how solid is it? Read the rest of this entry »
Category: Finance, State Budget | 1 Comment »
September 19th, 2011 by Robert Lowry
In this post:
Category: Legislation, New York Success Stories, Standards & Assessments, State Budget | No Comments »
July 15th, 2011 by Robert Lowry
Some news on tax revenues, in New York, and across the country
Category: Finance, State Budget | No Comments »
April 26th, 2011 by Robert Lowry
Governor Cuomo has said that school districts can absorb state aid reductions in the recently enacted state budget without resorting to teacher layoffs.
Yet a recent survey by the New York State School Boards Association found that 81 percent of districts were expecting to lay off teachers.
Why?
This is the Governor’s first year in office, but it is not the first tough year for school budgets.
Our analysis finds that in the current (2010-11) school year, 75 percent of the state’s school districts are already receiving less aid from the state than they did two years ago, in 2008-09.
With the further cuts in the enacted state budget for 2011-12, over 90 percent of the state’s districts are due to receive less state aid next year than they did three years ago, in 2008-09.
When Building Aid is excluded, only four of the state’s 676 districts eligible for regular School Aid are to receive more aid in the coming year than they received three years ago. Building Aid reimburses districts for capital construction expenses.
Here is a spreadsheet with the figures for all districts.
Between 2008-09 and 2011-12, School Aid will have dropped by 8.0 percent statewide. Excluding Building Aid, state funding for school operating costs will be down by 12.4 percent.
At the same time schools have been facing cuts in aid for ongoing operations averaging 4 percent per year, they have also been dealing with surging costs for pensions and other benefits which would drive up their overall spending by around 2.5 percent per year, even if all other costs could be frozen.
Here is a chart with our estimates for districts other than the Big 5 Cities (Buffalo, New York, Rochester, Syracuse, and Yonkers).
To manage austerity in state aid and surging benefit costs, schools have already been seeking ways to achieve savings without hurting opportunities for students. But for most districts, the easier options have now been exhausted.
Category: Finance, State Budget | No Comments »