While union leaders acknowledge that Gov. Spitzer's executive budget proposal keeps education a priority, it also raises serious questions.

"It's essential in our efforts to close the achievement gap that we keep the multi-year commitment made to our children, particularly those in poverty," said NYSUT President Dick Iannuzzi. "The critical question is: How can we best keep our promises to all our children in tough economic times?"

NYSUT acknowledges the depths of the challenges faced by the state, said Executive Vice President Alan Lubin. "There are positive initiatives in the budget request, along with points of concern," Lubin said, including cuts to the State and City University systems and a controversial proposal to cap school property taxes.

Spitzer's $124 billion spending plan would increase education funding by $1.46 billion, a 7.45 percent increase over last year. The governor noted the increase would bring the education funding commitment to $3.18 billion of his planned four-year increase of more than $7 billion by 2010-11.

Central to the governor's historic education commitment last year was a revised Foundation Aid formula that promised every district a minimum 3 percent increase in state aid, with high-need districts getting more.

Spitzer's budget would increase Foundation Aid by $899 million, although the original commitment was a $1.25 billion increase in 2008-09. Perhaps as a sign of the state's fiscal dilemma, the governor also proposed lowering the formula's minimum increase in total Foundation Aid from 3 percent to 2 percent.

Funding to the neediest districts - those now under the governor's Contracts for Excellence program - was also scaled back with the maximum increase dropping from 25 percent to 15 percent. The governor also proposed several changes related to the Contracts program, including:

• Programs to help English language learners would become an approved use for Contracts funding;
• Contract funding requirements would apply to qualifying districts' annual expenditures for at least three years;
• After the three years, districts that demonstrate sufficient improvement in student performance would no longer be subject to the program's requirements.

The governor also proposed adding Charter School Transition Aid (which was increased this year by $870,000) to the categories of aid that must be included in the contract.

Under Spitzer's proposed budget, funding to the state's Boards of Cooperative Educational Services would be cut by $67 million below what districts would otherwise receive under current law. NYSUT leaders vowed to fight for full funding.

Early start, healthy start

The executive budget includes a $79 million increase for universal Pre-K.

As part of the Healthy Schools Act, reimbursements to schools would increase to $9.4 million to provide free lunches to children in the reduced-price lunch program.

Funds for strengthening teacher support were continued at present levels for teacher centers ($40 million); the Mentor-Teacher Intern program ($10 million); Teachers of Tomorrow ($25 million); and the Al Shanker grant program ($500,000) for teachers pursuing National Board Certification. The governor proposed a Transition to Teaching pilot program to encourage professionals in technical fields to become certified classroom teachers.

Higher ed concerns

Acknowledging a $4 billion state deficit, NYSUT's Lubin questioned the executive budget's cuts to the State University, City University and community colleges, "given the governor's emphasis on investing in public higher education, which is needed more than ever now to rev the state's economy."

Under the proposed budget, funding to cover mandatory costs at SUNY and CUNY would drop 2.5 percent ($34.2 million for SUNY and $16.7 million for CUNY). There are also small cuts to both systems' opportunity programs, which serve economically disadvantaged students.

The budget does not call for tuition increases at SUNY or CUNY.

"In tough economic times, there's an understandable inclination to cut back on investment," Lubin said. "But that's precisely when we need to move steadily forward, investing in education as the engine to the state's economy."

Aid to community colleges would be reduced by $50 per full-time-equivalent student.

State aid to private colleges would be reduced 2.5 percent, from $46.2 million to $41 million. The state's teaching hospitals, would see a slight increase, but not nearly enough to address their untenable financial situation, Lubin said.

Tracing a theme from his State of the State address, the governor included a proposal to privatize a portion of the state Lottery and use proceeds to create a $4 billion Higher Education Endowment to fund improvements in New York's colleges and universities. A K-12 Trust Fund, also funded through lottery proceeds, would be formed to ensure K-12 revenues increase annually by an appropriate growth factor. The state comptroller would be the sole trustee of these funds.

Spitzer said an endowment would be critical to help the state finance several recommendations of the Commission on Higher Education, including hiring 2,000 full-time faculty members for SUNY and CUNY within five years, and establishing an innovation fund for research to boost technology and attract business growth. Spitzer's plan does not include any new funding in the 2008-09 fiscal year.

Tax cap plan

Another troubling proposal in the governor's plan is Spitzer's appointment of a bipartisan commission charged, among other things, with recommending how to implement a school property tax cap.

A tax cap proposal would, Lubin said, "remove local control and take us in the wrong direction at a time when New York's education progress is being recognized."

Lubin said increasing the state's share of education aid would reduce property taxes without removing local control.

The governor also recommended $5 billion in property tax relief through the existing STAR program.

As New York Teacher went to press, NYSUT staffers were combing through the governor's health care proposals. Spitzer outlined a universal health care plan to ensure access for 400,000 children not now covered. The governor's proposal fully funds the federal share of the expansion of Child Health Plus, which was blocked by the Bush administration.

"This is just the beginning of the process," Lubin said. NYSUT will be working with both houses of the Legislature "to honor New York's multi-year commitment to provide quality public education for all our children."

- Clarisse Butler Banks