Statewide School Finance Consortium (SSFC) Director, Dr. Rick Timbs, appeared on Capital Tonight with Susan Arbetter on Friday to discuss Governor Kathy Hochul's budget, and the negative effects it will have on public schools in New York State.
“If you do the math, we have a deficit,” Timbs told Capital Tonight.
Timbs says, under her 2.4% increase this year, many school districts will see a decrease in their aid allotment, which may result in drastic reductions to student programming and opportunities. The reason? Inflation is at 4.1%.
According to Timbs’ analysis, 337 school districts across the state will see their aid cut by $167 million if the governor’s executive budget is adopted.
“So, you have districts that are rural, small districts, some suburban districts, whereby hundreds of thousands dollars, sometimes millions of dollars are being subtracted from their state aid payments,” he said. “There’s a great deal of dissatisfaction.”
The education budget hearing is scheduled for Feb. 1.
Click here to watch the interview.
