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| 2006-07 Executive Budget Proposal — K-12 Education Briefing Bulletin January 2005 Number Number 06-02Overall School Aid INCREASE of $634 million— • Increase of $259 million in traditional school aid. • $275.32 million increase in computerized aid. • $16.52 million cuts in grant programs. • Increase of $375 million in Sound Basic Education Aid. • Largest overall increase ever proposed by a Governor.
Sound Basic Education Aid— • Provides $700 million in funding, an increase of $375 million. • Additional funding is placed in a reserve account that will be allocated by the Division of the Budget. • Proceeds from the Video Lottery Terminals (VLTs) are used to support the $700 million in funding for the Sound Basic Education Aid. • $230 million in “one-time revenues is used to supplement the VLT revenues for 2006-07”.
Flex Aid — • Freezes funding for Flex Aid (unrestricted operating aid). • Districts that cap their spending increases will receive a 2% increase in Flex Aid beginning in 2007-08.
Education Tax Credit — • Creates a $500 refundable income tax credit to be used for tutoring, after-school programs, and “other education expenses.” • Available to families with incomes below $90,000 that live in school districts with under-performing schools. • Estimated cost of the tax credit will be $400 million per year.
STAR — • Provides $3.4 billion for the cost of the existing STAR program. • Provides an additional $72 million for the STAR program to increase the STAR exemption for seniors from $50,000 to $56,800 to reflect increases in the cost of living and provides for an automatic increase in the future. • Creates a new $530 million STAR Plus program that will provide $400 rebate checks to homeowners residing in school districts that adopt a spending cap.
Educational Accountability— • Enact various changes to school budget voting procedures: • Eliminates budget revotes • Extends voting hours • Requires bond resolution votes to occur on the statewide voting day • Involves county board of elections in the supervision of the election
Teacher Programs — • Continues Teacher Support Aid at the current level of $67.48 million. • Increases the funding for the Teachers of Tomorrow program by $5 million to $25 million. The increase is used to “provide recruitment incentives and tuition reimbursement to expand the pool of math and science teachers entering the teaching profession by means of alternative certification.” • Reduces funding for Teacher Centers from $31 million to $10.33 million. • Reduces funding for Teacher Mentor-Intern Program from $6.0 million to $2.0 million.
BOCES — • Provides $536.25 million for BOCES Aid, a decrease of $10.12 million. • Eliminates BOCES Aid for “educational services that exceed the costs of comparable services provided by individual school districts”. • Requires BOCES to demonstrate savings by making comparisons with existing state contract prices for “telecommunications and other services”.
Building Aid — • Provides $1.597 billion for Building Aid, an increase of $76.56 million. • Promotes efficiency by allowing school districts to access Dormitory Authority for technical and advisory services. • Provides all school districts with an exemption for the Wicks Law. • Building Aid formula changes would simplify reimbursement and provide reasonable and realistic allowances for construction costs and student-based space needs. • Aligns Building Aid payments for New York City with payments for school construction projects elsewhere in the state.
Private Excess Cost Aid — • Provides $120.07 million for Private Excess Cost Aid, a reduction of $97.96 million. • The average state aid ratio used in calculating aid for private special education programs would be reduced from 85% to 49%.
Public Excess Cost Aid — • Provides $2.528 billion for Public Excess Cost Aid, an increase of $131.29 million.
Transportation Aid — • Provides $1.3 billion for Transportation Aid, an increase of $90.0 million.
Tax Limitation — • Provides $182.7 million in Tax Limitation Aid, an increase of $47.7 million.
Early Grade Class Size Reduction — • Continued at last year's level of $139.39 million.
Universal PreK — • Continued at last year's level of $201.99 million.
Charter Schools — • Increases the charter school cap from 100 to 250. • Continues $6 million in funding for Charter School Stimulus Fund. • Provides that new charter schools authorized by the New York City Chancellor will be considered conversion charter schools and therefore will not count against the statutory limit. • Expands the entities authorized to grant charters to include not-for-profit organizations approved by the SUNY Board of Trustees. • Provides charter schools with building aid to reimburse for 49 percent of the allowable costs of school construction and leases. • Allows charter schools to access the Dormitory Authority for financing and construction management.
Review of State Testing Administration — • Creates a new independent “panel of experts” to provide guidance and recommendations to strengthen administration of the Regents' testing program. |
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