State lawmakers are holding hearings across the state this month to find ways to better fund schools. Central New York students and activists are among those calling for full funding of a formula called Foundation Aid that distributes money across school districts.
13-year-old Emerson Brown is an eighth grader at in the Auburn School District. She was one of the speakers at a roundtable sponsored by state Senate Democrats on whether Foundation Aid is meeting the needs of schools. Brown said her school isn’t getting the funding it deserves.
"Right now our elementary students only get art or music every six days. And we want more of that," Brown said. "And we also had a 20% cut in our staff."
Brown represented about 100 students bussed from Auburn to Syracuse to show support for full funding of Foundation Aid.
Boosters of the Syracuse City School District also want the funding promised by the formula that accounts for two-thirds of the state aid to education. Twiggy Billue, president of the Syracuse Chapter of the National Action Network, said the formula was meant to create financial equity among school districts, using the state aid to balance out property taxes.
But it hasn’t worked. The latest figures from the Alliance for a Quality Education shows the spending gap between rich and poor district now exceeds $10,000 per pupil.
"Coming from a district with schools in receivership that could use the money," said Billue. "Coming from the district that has a supply deficit, we could use the money. So we’re asking the Foundation Aid be funded the way it’s written, then we could determine if it’s working."
Syracuse-area state Sen. Rachel May, who joined other lawmakers at the roundtable, said fully funding the program is problematic right now.
"We’re about four billion dollars in the hole in terms of how it was supposed to be funded by this time. That’s a very heavy lift," May said. "But a lot of us got elected last year promising to work on this. So I’m very happy this is happening."
May said ultimately the governor’s budget next year will determine what happens going forward. She said having hearings now will help offer substantive suggestions that may improve the system. And Brown is hopeful her advocacy will reaches the powers that be.
"I think speaking out to these Senators and state lawmakers will do a big thing," Brown said. "Because we’ve only been in news articles and spoken out a couple times. But this will put a big mark on funding."
