The LPCSD Board of Education discussed the possible state aid cut, the result of policy changes in Gov. Kathy Hochul’s executive budget plan, at its meeting on Jan. 23 — the same day Hochul appeared at the Olympic Sports Complex at Mount Van Hoevenberg to speak about her $233 billion budget and to highlight budget items specific to the North Country.

Hochul’s budget proposes changes to the way that districts across the state calculate their foundation aid. This proposal has generated bipartisan criticism, as it would reduce the amount of aid that many districts receive.

Hochul proposed $507 million in foundation aid for the 2024-25 school year. According to the Alliance for Quality Education, a New York-based organization that advocates for public schools, this number was expected to be in line with past years’ steady increases, putting expected foundation aid in the ballpark of $927 million. With a more than $400 million difference in expectations, many school districts statewide will see no increase or even a decrease in foundation aid — including LPCSD.

LPCSD Assistant Superintendent for Business, Finance and Support Services Dana Wood said that the school board needs to proceed through the budgeting process assuming the budget cuts are going to happen.

“If (Hochul’s) numbers are accurate, we’re losing $617,000 in state aid. That’s real. If you look at previous years in terms of difference between the governor’s proposal and what has come in, it has been basically even,” he said. “We always build (the budget) off of what the governor presents in their executive budget.”

Wood said that this is an almost 17% reduction in foundation aid for LPCSD. He added that 45% of districts statewide are expected to see similar cuts.

“That’s encouraging in the sense of its scope of ridiculousness,” said LPCSD Superintendent Timothy Seymour.

Created in 2006 following a court decision, foundation aid is the largest aid category that supports public schools across the state. In the 2022-23 school year, it represented about 68% of the total state aid received by districts school wide. Foundation aid varies by district; It is calculated by taking into account factors like local cost of living, existing district funding and student needs and costs.

When the governor unveils her executive budget proposal, she also submits several pieces of legislation that will help implement the budget. One of these pieces of legislation is an annual Education, Labor and Family Assistance Bill that includes the aid changes. Hochul’s foundation aid proposal has two tentpoles: Altering the formula that calculates foundation aid and eliminating the “save harmless” (sometimes called “hold harmless”) provision, which ensures that the total foundation aid a district receives is not smaller than the previous year’s total.

The new formula takes into account “transition adjustment,” which is calculated via a second formula. Transition adjustment is a wealth-based calculation. The elimination of the “save harmless” provision is a by-product of this formula change and not something that is legislated explicitly. The formula changes are located in Part A of the ELFA Bill, which can be viewed at tinyurl.com/vx2vym4e.

Former LPCSD superintendent Roger Catania, who represents the 4th Judicial District on the New York State Board of Regents, wrote in an Adirondack Daily Enterprise guest commentary on Jan. 19 that Hochul’s proposal is “misguided and potentially harmful” for school districts in the state. The Board of Regents has a different state aid proposal on the table, which would see districts receive amounts of foundation aid in line with previous years.

New York State United Teachers, a federation of more than 1,200 local teachers’ unions, said last week that Hochul’s proposal “would arbitrarily change elements of the formula to save money.” NYSUT also released a resource website with data about the foundation aid cuts, which can be found at fundourfutureny.org.

Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-Schuylerville) and Sen. Dan Stec (R-Queensbury) also came out against the proposal.

“Ensuring all our students receive a quality education is one of the most important things we can do. Instead of making that possible, Governor Hochul proposes shortchanging upstate schools by eliminating the ‘hold harmless’ provision and cutting funding in favor of New York City,” Stec said in a statement. “Our schools should be our top priority and it’s time the governor and Democrat leaders treat them as such.”

State Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins (D-Yonkers) expressed opposition to the aid cuts last week, as did Sen. Shelley Mayer (D-Yonkers), who is the chair of the Senate Education Committee, and several other prominent Democrats.

At last week’s meeting, the LPCSD school board questioned how they could even build a budget given the controversy and possibly changeable numbers.

“The governor has a mandate to propose a balanced budget and the legislature, if you follow the tea leaves and the fact that the deficit is rampant to date, is not held by that same mandate,” Seymour said. “But right now we act on the information that’s available to us.”

The state is projecting a $4.3 billion budget gap in the coming fiscal year, though Hochul estimates the deficit to be lower.

At Mount Van Hoevenberg earlier that day, Hochul answered criticism of this proposal by saying that her goal was always to increase school aid short-term, to “make up lost time” after years of lagging school aid, then “stabilize” funding.

“Those who are now saying these are all cuts, I say it’s not a cut, it’s just not the same increase you had before,” she said.