Each year, the New York State Board of Regents adopt a proposal on state aid to school districts. At their October 2007 meeting, the Board approved their 2008-09 state aid proposal that calls for an additional $1.94 billion in school aid over last year's funding level. Most of the additional funding, which would be targeted to high need school districts, would come in the form of increases in Foundation Aid. Last year, the governor and the legislature enacted Foundation Aid, a new multi-year school funding formula that replaced several existing aid categories.

Essentially the foundation aid formula calculates state aid according to the following formula:

District's State Aid = (Foundation Cost x Pupil Need x Regional Cost Index) - Expected Local Share

The foundation cost is determined based on the cost of educating an average student in a "successful school district," defined as a district that had on average 80 percent or more of their students passing seven state examinations, two at the elementary level and five at the high school level, for three consecutive years.

The foundation cost is then adjusted for pupil need to recognize the added cost of educating students living in poverty and also adjusted for a regional cost index to generate additional funds to school districts where wages and the cost of living are higher. This amount is subtracted from an expected local share to calculate a state aid amount. The local share is based on a district's tax base and an expected local tax rate.

The Board of Regents are recommending a continuation of the Foundation Aid formula with some adjustments, including increasing the pupil need weighting for English Language Learners and lowering from 3% to 2% the minimum increase in overall Foundation Aid that a district could receive. In total the Regents are seeking a $1.8 billion increase in Foundation Aid.

The following chart depicts the state aid per pupil under both the current funding level and the funding level proposed by the Board of Regents for the 2008-09 school year by the type of district.

Other Components of the Regents' Proposal

• Improving the BOCES Aid formula by increasing the aidable salary cap from $30,000 to $57,000. Currently, the salaries of BOCES employees are only aidable up to $30,000. This $30,000 salary limit has not been increased since the 1991-92 school year.
• Funding for prekindergarten programs would increase by $104 million.
• Mandating full-day kindergarten in all districts and providing planning grants to support districts to transition to full-day kindergarten.
• Transportation Aid would increase based on the current law.
• Library materials aid would increase from $20 million to $28 million.
• Increasing the number of Career and Technical Education (CTE) programs through an additional $6 million in Challenge Grants.
• Requiring districts identified as Contract for Excellence districts to comply with the Contract for Excellence requirements for a minimum of three years.

The Regents will now present their proposal to the governor and the legislature for their review.

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