By Dan Murphy
While Mayor Mike Spano has yet to release his proposed 2020 budget, which takes effect July 1, and the Yonkers Public Schools and Superintendent Dr. Edwin Quezada have also yet to propose their budget, estimates have a $45 million to $60 million budget hole in the YPS budget for the 2019-20 school year, which starts in September.
This year’s budget gap is not unlike other, yearly Yonkers budget dramas. However, there does appear to be a sense of urgency this year to attempt to remedy the constant shortfall in funding at YPS once and for all
Spano issued the following statement:
“In just 15 days Yonkers will find out whether we are treated fairly in this year’s state budget. If we aren’t, our schools face a $45 million to $60 million budget gap and potential teacher layoffs. That’s why I joined city councilmembers, teachers and other union leaders this week to meet with our Albany leaders and tell them this year’s state budget must finally treat Yonkers fairly. We met with Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, who now is one of the three people who will negotiate this year’s budget, and with Senate Education Committee Chairwoman Sen. Shelley Mayer, whose committee is in charge of all Senate education legislation.
“Our message was simple: Don’t agree to any state budget unless it treats Yonkers fairly. We also met with our new Assemblyman Nader Sayegh and long-time Assemblyman Gary Pretlow, as well as the governor’s budget staff, and warned that without a fair budget we may have to cut hundreds of teaching positions. If you want to know what you can do, call the governor and your Albany representatives. Express your appreciation for their past support of Yonkers Schools, and urge them to stand strong for Yonkers. Together we can provide the children of Yonkers with the education they deserve. With everyone’s help I am confident this will be the year Albany stops shortchanging our city.”
Yonkers City Councilman John Rubbo wrote online: “Clear and simple – there is a funding imbalance in Yonkers and our school children are suffering. The New York State school funding formula has been broken for more than a decade.
“Prime example… The formula uses a wealth index of the community to decide funding to the schools. The formula sends Buffalo, Syracuse and Rochester schools 90 percent of their foundation aid and Yonkers Public Schools receive only 52 percent in aid. Are we rich in Yonkers? When 80 percent of our children are eligible for free meals because they are below the poverty level; the answer is no.
“When Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins first campaigned for her Senate seat, she stated that arts and sports programs were drastically cut, The ratio of students to guidance counselors were below average, classrooms were overcrowded, and school buildings were falling apart. Nothing has changed. I just described the current state of the Yonkers Public Schools. The only difference is that we have done more with less. Superintendent Quezada, along with his faculty and administrators, have successfully helped increase graduation rates to over 80 percent with minimal annual additions to the state funding formula.
“The solution: With an increase of 25 percentage points on the wealth index, Yonkers will receive recurring aid in the amount of $160 million annually. When this happens you will no longer hear that Yonkers has a money problem, inequity in staff to students, no junior varsity sports, no funding to rebuild our schools. We will be funded fairly.
“Now that Sen. Andrea Stewart-Cousins is the leader of the New York State Senate, I am asking all residents to call on her and to advocate to Gov. Andrew Cuomo, and her colleagues in Albany, to finally fix Yonkers school funding formula. The success of our schools and our students effect your city, your property values and your future,” wrote Rubbo.
Cuomo submitted his proposed budget last month, and now both the Senate and Assembly have submitted their “one-house budgets.” In the Senate and Assembly budget plans, additional funding is provided for education and or Yonkers.
Mayer commented on the one-house budget passed in the Senate: “I am proud to vote in favor of the One-House Budget Resolution, which provides historic support for public schools statewide with significant increases to Foundation Aid. The resolution also underscores our commitment to local municipalities.
“I am proud to serve as chairwoman of the State Senate Education Committee. The One-House Budget Resolution provides historic funding increases to advance educational opportunities across New York State.”
This includes: increases to School Aid by $1.62 billion or 6 percent over the 2018-19 school year; increases to Foundation Aid by $1.2 billion or 6.8 percent over last year; and, for the first time, provides a new pool of $25 million in additional grants to school districts to support English language learning students.
The resolution also provides $20 million for expanded pre-kindergarten grants, which is $5 million above the executive budget; and provides $70 million for a new local government financial stability program for distressed local governments including, but not limited to, the City of Yonkers, school districts, jurisdictions impacted by tax certiorari related to electric generation, and other jurisdictions facing significant fiscal distress.
Yonkers community members traveled to Albany this week to lobby anyone who will listen in state government for more state education funding, with parents, students, staff, unions, city councilmembers and the mayor united in their call for sustainable funding, instead of the one-shot revenues the city receives as the last minute.
YPS Superintendent Dr. Edwin Quezada has led the call to ask for Albany to give Yonkers an increase in Foundation Aid to similar levels that other “big five” school districts in upstate New York receive. Quezada has proposed increasing Yonkers’ Foundation Aid ratio by 25 percent, from 52.8 to 77.8 percent, to raise the Yonkers per-pupil appropriation to $11,771.
The Foundation Aid ratio for the “big five” has Buffalo at 90 percent, Rochester at 90 percent, and Syracuse at 90 percent. Yonkers would still lag behind these schools in Foundation Aid, but an increase to 77 percent would mean tens of millions of additional State Education Aid every year.
Another way to increase state education funding for Yonkers would be to increase the share of revenues Yonkers receives in video lottery revenue, which has remained flat at $19.6 million for years.
Another statistic shows that nearly 70 cents on every dollar of taxpayer money goes to fund Yonkers schools, which is a much higher rate than the “big five” upstate school district. Spano has argued that Yonkers taxpayers should not be asked to fund anymore beyond a budget that falls at the property tax cap of 2 percent.
A 2 percent property tax increase in the upcoming Yonkers budget would leave the school district more than $30 million short, which would result in layoffs and cuts to programs. That is what the mayor, students, parents and teachers were in Albany to warn about.
Westchester County Executive George Latimer joined the Yonkers community at the state capital.
