May 2015 Issue
April 27, 2015

2015 state budget breakdown

Source: NYSUT United
budget breakdown
Caption:

Education Aid

  • School aid increased by $1.4 billion.
  • $603 million goes to reduce the Gap Elimination Adjustment by 60 percent this year. $433 million of the GEA remains outstanding.
  • Foundation Aid increased by $428 million.
  • Teacher Center funding was restored at $14.26 million.
  • $75 million to invest in struggling schools.
  • Overall increase of $15 million to SUNY stateoperated campuses, $12 million more for CUNY senior colleges and a $100-per-student increase for community colleges.
  • Increased funding for 4201 schools, serving special needs students, 853 schools and Special Act Schools.
  • Restores SUNY hospital funding and blocks privatization or closure of SUNY Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn.

Teacher Evaluation, Tenure

  • Tenured employees could face dismissal if they receive two consecutive ineffective ratings and must be brought up on 3020a charges if they receive three ineffectives in a row.
  • The probationary period for untenured teachers is extended to four years, from three.
  • Teachers must register with SED, and reregister every five years after completing at least 100 hours of SED-approved continuing education.
  • The Regents is tasked with implementing a new Annual Professional Performance Review process, heavily prescribed in the legislation.
  • Overriding local control, the education commissioner can place schools designated as "failing" into receivership.

Up Ahead

  • Absent from the budget is the DREAM Act, which would improve opportunities for immigrants brought here as children.
  • Changes to include collective bargaining and other inflationary costs in "maintenance of effort" for higher education were deferred to the end of the session.
  • The budget does not include language on the Education Investment Tax Credit, the tax cap or the real property tax circuit breaker. They could be negotiated in the debate over mayoral control and rent control.
  • The final budget did not lift the cap on charter schools although it did award $25 million to increase per-pupil funding. The Legislature is expected to debate the cap again.
  • The budget did not address raising the minimum wage.

budget breakdown