Money Talks - Understanding State Aid

March 8, 2024

Many thanks to John Brucato, Asst. Supt. for Finance and Operations in Briarcliff Manor and Ron Clamser, Jr., Asst. Supt. for Finance, Facilities, and Operations in Dobbs Ferry for explaining the different bases on which state aid is distributed to public schools. They clearly explained how each category is distributed and the intricacies involved in reading a state aid run. Below is a summary of their presentation. 

State aid is intended to “adequately” fund a “sound basic education” for all NYS students: 

• Although the state constitution permits the legislature to authorize appropriations for up to 2 years of school aid, in practice, school aid is determined annually through the state budgeting process. 
• The primary form of aid is through Foundation Aid – which is basic operating aid In its simplest form, the 2007 Foundation Aid formula is calculated as: 

School District Foundation Aid Per Pupil = Foundation Amount (standard local cost of education) X Pupil Needs Index X Regional Cost Index – Expected Minimum Local Contribution 

• In the current Executive Budget proposal, the Foundation Aid expectation of school districts depends on whether the district is running “on formula” or in the position of “save harmless.” 

Aids are also provided for districts based on usage rates in the prior school year: 

• Transportation Aid is provided for bus purchases, but also for non-capital or contractual eligible expenses of transportation. 
• Building Aid is provided primarily for instructional spaces with varying amortization schedules. As debt service and capital expenditures affect the tax levy cap, long range planning is critical to ensuring that the debt service and building aid schedule reduce the potential swings in tax cap availability from year to year.  
• Excess Cost Aids are based on special education student needs for public school/BOCES intensive programs or students placed in private school settings. As the costs on which this aid stream is based varies even within the school year, the projections on state aid runs are typically not very accurate. 
• BOCES Aid assists in covering the cost to districts of purchasing services from BOCES, however complicating factors such as a low cap on CTE salaries eligible for aid ($30,000) make calculation of expected BOCES aid difficult. 
• Instructional Materials Aids for technology, software, library materials and textbooks are calculated as a flat dollar amount based on enrollment.  
• Universal Prekindergarten (UPK) Aid has been added to  the state aid runs in the past few years. Including UPK aid on the state runs is not helpful as this aid may go unused, or is typically included in a special fund, not the general operating fund of the school district. 
• An additional aid that some local districts receive is High Tax Aid, provided for communities with high property taxes and low state aid percentages, mostly in Westchester and Long Island. 

Many advocacy issues center around state aid for public school districts: 

• Pushing back against the Governor’s proposals to cut Foundation Aid to districts on “save harmless,” and to change the inflationary factor into a multi-year calculation for the coming school year. 
• Studying the Foundation Aid formula to provide a distribution based on current data and circumstances. 
• Increasing the BOCES CTE salary cap. 
• Increasing the Building Aid annual limit on one-year capital outlay projects. 
• Increasing the flexibility and/or per pupil amount allocated to districts outside NYC for UPK Aid.