Overall School Aid Increase of $1.4 Billion

• Four Year increase of $7 billion in State Aid
• Largest increase ever proposed by a Governor

Foundation Aid

• New aid combines 30 old categories of aid into one new foundation formula
• Categories in the foundation grant include Flex Aid, Magnet Schools, Teacher Support Aid, Public Excess Cost Aid, Limited English Proficiency and Sound Basic Education Aid.
• Increase in foundation aid of $982 million in 2007-08 and $4.8 billion over 4 years.
• Foundation amount of $5,258 in 2007-08 rising to $5,662 in 2010-11 with annual 2.5 percent inflation increase.
• Minimum increase of 3 percent in Foundation Aid provided to all districts each year.
• Foundation amount adjusted for regional cost.
• Weighting for poverty of .65 based on 50 percent FRPL count and 50 percent census data.
• Weighting for special education students of 1.41
• Weighting for limited English proficient students of .5

Tuition Tax Deduction

• New tuition tax deduction of $1,000 for parents of students attending private and public schools estimated to cost $25 million

Accountability

• Contract for excellence to apply to 116 school districts that receive a foundation aid increase of $15 million or 10 percent or receives a supplemental educational improvement plan grant.
• First 3 percent of the increase is provided for inflation and not covered by the contract.
• Districts develop a plan in consultation with parents, teachers and administrators to spend new funding on list of accepted programs including class size reduction, programs that increase student time on task, teacher quality, restructure middle and high schools and full day pre-k.
• District sets performance targets to be met in 4 years.
• If district fails to meet target, superintendent will be fired and school board removed

Tenure

• New tenure requirements would require districts to review data on the performance of the teacher's students, provide a peer review by other teachers and an assessment of the teacher's performance by the building administrator before granting tenure.

Charter Schools

• Increase the Charter School Cap from 100 to 250
• NYC Chancellor given authority to create 50 new charter schools without approval from SUNY or the Regents
• Provide a total of $15 million in transition aid to 5 districts including Buffalo, Albany, Lackawanna, Roosevelt and Schenectady. The aid will be phased out over 3 years. Charter Schools must provide notice to the school district by March 15th prior to opening

Universal Pre-K

• Provides a total of $394 million, an increase of $99 million in 2007-08
• New Formula to phase in Universal Pre-K over 4 years increasing aid by $350 million
• Save Harmless ensures no district will receive less funding for the 2007-08 school year

Teacher Programs

• Teacher Centers maintained at $37 Million
• Mentor Intern Teacher Program maintained at $6 Million
• National Board for Professional Teaching Standards maintained at $500,000

STAR

• New expansion of the STAR program targeted to middle income homeowners providing $1.5 billion in property tax relief.
• STAR rebate checks eliminated to save $675 million.

BOCES

• Expense based formula is continued
• Provides $622 million for BOCES Aid, an increase of $37 million.

Building Aid

• Provides $1.684 billion, an increase of $23 million
• Provides $94 million in EXCEL Building aid.

Transportation Aid

• Provides $1.417 billion, an increase of $81 million

Excess Cost aid

• Basic public excess cost aid is included in the foundation amount
• High Cost Aid is continued and increased by $36 million.
• Private excess cost aid is continued and increased by $17 million.

State Education Department

• Received $20 million for Accountability including 77 new jobs.
• Received $5 million for school district efficiency studies.

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