Executive Director's Message
Advocacy season is in full swing. In addition to the normal priorities to pay attention to in Albany, the rapid changes coming from Washington, D.C. is something many of us are trying to keep up with.
The one thing to stress with all the news coming from Washington is don't underreact and don't overreact. Pay attention and be in constant communication with your legal team as to the impacts to worry about right away, and what to possibly prepare for.
It's important to keep in mind, that many things are going to wind up in legal battles in court and it will take time to sort things out.
We know that federal laws like IDEA and ESSA will not be going away, whether there is a Department of Education or not in the future these laws and the requirements will remain. These laws may be housed under another agency like IDEA was when it was first passed by Congress before there was a Department of Education.
Funding for Title grants and programs are always a concern and an advocacy priority for us. Funding for other programs that impact schools directly and indirectly are things to monitor such as cuts to federal food programs, and cuts to Medicaid.
Be sure to know the factual impacts on your district, so that when you meet with your federal representatives you will "know your story to sell your story". So get past the headlines and get into the details. Also be aware changes to any funding levels are not immediate, due to the different fiscal years that we operate on compared to the federal government (NYS is April 1st - March 31st and the Feds are October 1st - September 30th). There is a six month lag before we will feel any potential impacts. Pay attention, and don't get distracted.
We had several school board members attend NSBA's National Advocacy & Equity Institute this past month. Our message was plain and simple, no cuts to Title grant programs, and increase the funding for IDEA as required by law which is 40% of the excess costs compared to the 17% on average that is paid now. We also stressed the need for increasing the SALT-D cap, which for the Long Island delegation there is bipartisan support. There were several other issues we discussed with the Long Island members of Congress and we were grateful that they took the time to meet with our members. Thank you to those who came to Washington, D.C. to advocate for Long Island's students, your voices mattered.
We continue to work with our state legislators as the budget negotiations are well underway. We remain cautiously optimistic that the Governor's proposal was a starting point and not an ending point. Hopefully we will see a greater guaranteed minimum increase than 2%, and we will continue to advocate for a guaranteed minimum of 4%. We will also continue the push to "pump the brakes" on the zero emissions bus mandate, as specific deadlines are fast approaching.
If you have any questions, as always, we are here as a resource for you. In the meantime, wishing all of you the best with your own budget development season and thank you for leading the way in delivering a high quality education to the children on Long Island.
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