Education funding in New York inequitable, inadequate, report says

New York state's education funding system discriminates against poor and minority students and is "in urgent need of an infusion of money and focus," according to a report released last week by the state advisory committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.

The New York committee convened a series of hearings last summer in New York City on the question of educational funding disparities in the state. Its findings are plain in the title of its report: "Education Equity in New York: A Forgotten Dream."

In the place of the aborted Foundation Aid formula, the committee wrote, is "a system in which high-need, predominantly Black and Latinx school districts are chronically  underfunded, burdened not only with education resource deprivation but also with all the by-products of poor communities that are generally lacking in resources."

The report not only calls on the state to fulfill its obligations under the 2007 Campaign for Fiscal Equity-inspired formula, but to change the formula to shift more funding to high-needs districts.

It also calls for the creation of a "blue-ribbon commission to explore alternative funding structures to the current inequitable local tax-based system as well as ways to reduce racial segregation within and across school districts."

The report addresses the unique paradox of New York's educational funding: more money spent than any other state in the nation, along with some of the most disparate outcomes based on race and poverty levels. It shows, for example, that poor districts pay more for their schools as compared to property values yet generate much less revenue as a result.

Call to abolish property tax cap

Some of the proposed solutions are the same that New York State United Teachers and suburban districts have been shouting for years: abolishing the property tax cap and restoring the Foundation Aid formula, including money owed retroactively.

On the other hand, the report calls for an amendment to the state Constitution requiring that every district in the state be funded at the same level as the wealthiest ones, in one way or another.

"This goes beyond some of the things we've pushed for, in some instances," said Jasmine Gripper, executive director of the Alliance for Quality Education. That organization has carried the banner of the CFE fight.

A decade-long court battle brought by CFE ended in 2006 with a court order to significantly boost school spending to provide the "sound basic education" enshrined in the state Constitution, particularly for high-poverty districts.

The resulting Foundation Aid formula had hardly been written, however, before the 2008 financial crisis hit, and the new money was put on hold. Since then, Gov. Andrew Cuomo has argued that the state has more than met its obligations even if it has largely abandoned the formula.

"New York state has not been hitting the mark on equity for so long," Gripper said. "We should be embarrassed about that and moving in a meaningful way to close the gap."

Replace old demographic data

The issue of inequitable funding has been prominent in the Rochester City School District, which has been reckoning with a massive mid-year budget crisis. If the state followed through on its funding commitments, advocates argue, the district would be saved.

Dave Friedfel, director of state studies at the business-backed Citizens Budget Commission, was one of those who testified in the Civil Rights Commission hearings. He noted some areas of wide agreement, including the need to revisit the funding formula and shift more money to high-needs districts.

"(The report) correctly notes many of the flaws in the current formula, but I wouldn’t agree with their conclusions on how to remedy the situation," he said. "The flaws in the formula cut both ways — they don’t provide enough aid for some of the high-need districts, but they also provide way too much need to some of the districts that don’t really need it."

Replacing old demographic data in the formula with new figures would be relatively simple, he said — until some districts found out they were due to lose funding.

"It’s a political calculation, not a fiscal calculation," he said. "Some districts would receive less revenue, and that’s a problem politically."

JMURPHY7@Gannett.com