State Senator Pete Harckham
Decreasing support to districts is a “step backwards” and “an insult to students, educators and taxpayers”
New York State Senator Pete Harckham strongly criticized Governor Kathy Hochul for making cuts in state aid to several school districts in Senate District 40, even as the Executive’s Proposed FY2024-2025 State Budget grew to $233 billion, a 4.3% increase from last year’s Adopted FY2023-2024 State Budget.
Overall, six school districts in SD40—Bedford, Katonah-Lewisboro, Croton-Harmon, Chappaqua, North Salem and Yorktown—will receive less school aid in the FY2024-2025 State Budget that Hochul has proposed than from last year’s budget.
“Educating our students is the key to New York’s economic future and requires that we make these important investments in our schools, year after year,” said Harckham. “The State Legislature worked to fully fund our public schools, and in 2023 we finally achieved this goal. Decreasing those investments is a step backwards and an insult to students, educators and taxpayers.”
Harckham added, “We will fight to restore full funding to all school districts statewide. The Covid-19 pandemic set many of our students back in their learning; now is not the time to have them face state aid cuts that would impact staffing and programming.”
Additionally, nine out of the 19 school districts in SD40 face decreases in Foundation Aid in Hochul’s proposed FY2024-2025 budget.
The biggest loser from SD40 in Hochul’s proposed budget is the Bedford Central School District, which enrolls 3,500 students; it would lose 12% of its state aid.
“Our investments in the public schools are a promise to our students that we will help them achieve their goals and prepare them for a lifetime of learning,” said Harckham. “This year, school districts in New York should not receive less state funding while other districts nearby are seeing increases. That unfair budget modelling is a thing of the past.”
