$27.5M More for YPS
For more than two decades, parents, students and staff in the Yonkers Public Schools have called on the governor and state legislators to give Yonkers its fair share of state education funding. And over the years, elected officials from Yonkers have come to the aid of Yonkers and its public schools, with a last minute, one-shot aid package.
This year, the pressure was on Sen. Andrea Stewart-Cousins, who is also the majority leader of the State Senate, to deliver a similar injection of state aid to YPS, and to try and fix the yearly imbalance and come up with increased sustainable funding from Albany.
Stewart-Cousins, with the help of Sen. Shelley Mayer, who is also the Education Committee chairwoman in the Senate, and Assembly members who represent Yonkers, were able to accomplish these challenges in what was Stewart-Cousins’ first year as one of the “big three” state leaders (with Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Assembly Speaker Carl Heasie) in the “room where it happens.”
On, March 31, the Yonkers State Legislative Delegation voted to pass a state budget that secured significant funding for Yonkers Public Schools. Leading up to the budget deadline, YPS officials estimated a $40 million to $60 million budget shortfall for the 2019-20 school year.
Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, Chairwoman of the State Senate Education Committee Shelley Mayer, Chairman of the Westchester Delegation Assemblymember J. Gary Pretlow, and Assemblymember Nader Sayegh worked with Yonkers officials and the governor’s office to secure a down-payment toward the YPS budget shortfall.
The State Legislative Delegation secured an additional $27,500,000 for YPS, including $12 million in Bullet Aid, $11 million in additional Foundation Aid funding, and $4.5 million in expense-based aid.
“As the Senate Majority leader, and one of the state senators representing the City of Yonkers, I am very proud of the additional state aid we’ve secured through the budget to help our local community,” said Stewart-Cousins. “I was glad to work with fellow Yonkers representatives, Sen. Shelley Mayer and Assemblymembers Gary Pretlow and Nader Sayegh, to provide these additional state funds.”
“I am pleased for Yonkers students, teachers, and parents that my colleagues and I were able to secure a substantial down payment on the amount the city needs to fund Yonkers Public Schools,” added Mayer. “We will continue to work closely with Mayor Mike Spano, the City Council, the Yonkers Board of Education, and Gov. Andrew Cuomo to secure additional funding for Yonkers students. As we move forward, I look to partner with Yonkers officials in identifying long-term solutions, from the state and from the city, which address the reoccurring budgetary shortfalls plaguing the Yonkers Public Schools.”
Sayegh thanked his fellow state leaders for their continued commitment to YPS.
“I’d also like to acknowledge our local leadership, including Mayor Mike Spano, Yonkers City Council President Mike Khader, the Yonkers City Council, the Yonkers Council of PTA/PTSAs, the YFT, and all of the parents and students who made their voices heard in Albany,” he said. “Securing this crucial funding wouldn’t have been possible without their continued advocacy. However, our work is not yet done. Each day that our 30,000 children attend schools with subpar funding is a day they’re being neglected for issues far beyond their control. As I’ve stated in the past, it is a grave injustice and one which will only be resolved by the sizable undertaking of changing the inequitable school Foundation Aid formula once and for all.”
Yonkers residents will benefit from other victories in the 2019-20 state budget, including: A permanent 2 percent property tax cap expected to save property taxpayers statewide nearly $190 billion over the next decade; $438 million statewide for the Consolidated Local Street and Highway Improvement Program in capital funding to repave local roads and highways; $83.5 million in short-term loans, also known as Safety-Net funding, to assist distressed hospitals including St. John’s Riverside in Yonkers and Montefiore Mount Vernon Hospital; $18 million statewide for My Brother’s Keeper grants; $842,000 for Legal Services of the Hudson Valley, a nonprofit with a long history of representing Yonkers residents who cannot afford representation in housing court; $250,000 for the ALS Greater NY Association, a victory for Yonkers native and Ice Bucket Challenge co-founder Pat Quinn; and $100,000 for Youth Theatre Interactions, a Yonkers-based nonprofit.
The next steps for the students and taxpayers of Yonkers will be: The YPS and Superintendent Dr. Edwin Quezada will present a proposed budget to the Board of Education and the city. Mayor Mike Spano will deliver his State of the City address and present his proposed budget by April 15. The Yonkers City Council will then review the mayor’s budget plan, make amendments, and negotiate with the mayor on the spending plan and tax increases by the end of June.
