Even as Gov. Kathy Hochul says she has no interest in continuing reforms to New York’s Foundation Aid formula that were started in 2025 during this year’s state budget process, key state lawmakers and education advocates are continuing to push for adjustments.
They insist those tweaks are crucial for school districts to be able to support a wide array of needs that are unsupported by the current makeup and unassisted by last year’s minor changes.
Last week, Capital Tonight’s Susan Arbetter asked Hochul in a one-on-one interview if she had any appetite to continue reshaping the formula, which provides districts with their primary form of state aid.
“No,” she answered. “We’re actually increasing for areas that have, we have, we’re going to fully fund it. We’ve debated for 16 years and many high-need communities were left hanging. We’ve invested that money. But also, there are some areas that were not going to see any increases, so we’re actually having a sort of a floor to help them this year. So no, we have to keep investing in education.”
That floor comes in the form of a minimum 1% increase for all districts, down from a 2% increase last year.
Melinda Person, president of New York State United Teachers, told Capital Tonight ahead of her testimony at Thursday’s state budget hearing on secondary & elementary education that the 1% increase will be tough on districts. More and more of them are finding themselves on hold harmless, which prevents districts from receiving less money than the year before, and leaves a sizable chunk grappling with the realities of a 1% minimum increase combined with a 2% tax cap, and a nearly 3% inflation rate.
“On average, Foundation Aid in her proposed budget is going up 3%, 1% is the minimum increase, but unfortunately, that applies to 461 out of out of about 700, so that’s a good share of the districts that are only seeing, when they look at their projections, only a 1% increase,” she said. “In an environment where inflationary pressures are high and affordability is a concern — your 3% inflation factor is what people are looking at in terms of their cost going up.”
The Foundation Aid changes made last year, which largely centered around updating out of date poverty metrics, were the result of a battle in 2024 over Hochul’s proposal to phase out hold harmless, which resulted in outcry from advocates and many state lawmakers. Hochul eventually retreated, agreeing to a study that provided many of the options advocates are looking toward in making changes.
Senate Education Committee Chair Shelley Mayer told Spectrum News 1 that there is more work to do this year’s spending plan, even if it doesn’t come in the form of a budget battle or major overhaul.
“I don’t think it’s a year for a big formula change, but it is a year to reflect that certain students have greater needs,” she said. “There are particular needs that are not well reflected in the changes we made last year.”
Mayer and other advocates want to see changes to address an influx of students who lack permanent housing, an issue that New York City Department of Education Chancellor Kamar Samuels raised at the hearing and Mayer stressed extends well beyond just downstate.
“That is an extraordinary burden on a school, and that’s not reflected in the formula, so that’s a very fair point,” she said.
Person agrees.
“We have proposed additional increases for homeless students,” she said. “Different ways to treat weightings for special education, we think that there should be something called growth aid, so districts are getting money in real time when they have an influx of new students. There are a number of additional changes that we were hoping that some of that those changes will get into the budget this year, including increasing that 1% minimum.”
Republican state Sen. Jim Tedisco said that his district, which includes the cities of Saratoga Springs and Schenectady with rural schools in between, demonstrates the wide range of needs that New York’s schools are facing, especially amid advocacy for including additional weighting for English Language Learners and the costs of that programming.
“There are different dimensions there,” he said. “There are more issues in the city of Schenectady where there are more concerns about minorities and language issues, so I think you have to take that into consideration.”
The state education department is also pushing for a similar slate of changes to the formula. Commissioner Betty Rosa testified Thursday, and she said afterward that while she would like to see the legislature push the governor to make those adjustments, she understands that a massive budget like New York’s requires Hochul to make tough decisions.
“In all fairness, she believes that she continues to support our education system, but she has to look at all of her agencies,” she said.
Another issue Mayer is tracking closely is the role of immigration enforcement in New York’s schools, which also came up at the hearing and is a concern that has grown more acute for the Senator in light of the situation in Minneapolis.
Hochul proposed including schools in a list of protected locations where ICE couldn’t enter without a warrant. Mayer is pushing a bill that would take it a step further.
“It would require that when immigration comes to the door, they have to consult with the attorney from the school district, not just the superintendent of the district; it would reaffirm the principle that every child is entitled to enroll in a public school regardless of immigration status,” she said.
During testimony, Mayer asked Rosa if she supported some form of a law limiting the ability for ICE to enter a school without a judicial warrant. She answered “Yes.”
The Senate is expected to advance bills related to immigration reform “sooner rather than later” according to Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, and Mayer said the bill could pass via that route regardless of what happens during the budget process.
“The Senate majority leader has indicated that we are ready to move ahead with a range of policy that addresses real challenges of the moment,” she said. “I give the governor credit; she opened the door, and that was a great sign. I believe that the door needs to be opened more broadly, and I think most of my colleagues agree. We can’t do a minimum amount.”