Senator Weber Schedules Public Meeting on Foundation Aid Formula for School Districts After Rockland Is Left Out of Discussion by Albany

By M.C. Millman 

While the New York State Legislature scheduled five public hearings to gather input from communities statewide, Rockland County was not one of the five locations chosen to share its voice despite the uniqueness of the ERCSD with the most nonpublic school students of any district in New York.  

To remedy the situation, Senator Bill Weber, a leading advocate for updating the funding formula, arranged for a bipartisan discussion and testimony session at the Cultural Arts Theater of Rockland Community College. The forum will take place on Monday, July 29, from 6 to 8 p.m. 

Senator Weber underscores the urgency of speaking up, particularly in light of the significant shortfall in foundation aid that Rockland schools have experienced, collectively amounting to tens of millions of dollars annually.

“It was critical that Rockland not be left out of this discussion,” Senator Bill Weber shares with Rockland Daily. “Being that the closest hearing would have been more than two hours away, I arranged an additional hearing for Rockland. Residents can rest assured that they will be heard and that their testimony will be passed on and included in the Rockefeller Institute’s final report. 

“This is our opportunity to finally address the inequities in the Foundation Aid Formula. I strongly encourage every Rockland resident to make their voice heard and participate in this crucial process, which will have a major impact for years to come."

The New York State Legislature officially mandated a comprehensive study of the Foundation Aid Formula, established in 2007. 

This study included five public hearings, organized by the Rockefeller Institute which will serve to gather input from communities statewide. The findings will be compiled into a report scheduled for release by December 2024.

Rockland Daily reached out to Harry Grossman, former president and longtime board member of the beleaguered ERCSD who explained how the Foundation Aid formula has resulted in a loss of $20 million a year over the past ten to fifteen years as publicly reported by the ERCSD state monitor. 

“First of all, it uses poverty statistics from the year 2000 and never updates those statistics,” Grossman explains. “At the very least, the Foundation Aid Formula needs to use the numbers from the census count every decade and the census surveys every 2 years.

“Second of all, all other means-tested government programs determine poverty based on income.  Only Foundation Aid, which uses the wealth ratio (total property value divided by number of public-school kids), determines it based on property values.  This makes no sense. 

“Thirdly, non-public school children must be included as the district is required to provide services and expend money on them.  Ignoring them badly skews the outcome. You can have a funding formula as the state currently has it, but when the number of non-public students exceeds 25% of the total number of students, the formula no longer works.”

This is why Senator Weber has been advocating for a more proactive and equitable solution. Recognizing the transportation law imposed by New York State requiring transportation for both public and private schools, the senator, together with Assemblyman Karl Brabenec, introduced legislation in both legislative chambers (Senate Bill S4510A and Assembly Bill A4020A) as previously reported by Rockland Daily here in May.

The legislation aims to transfer the responsibility for transportation costs from the district to the state. 

Presently, the state works on a wealth ratio, which determines foundation funding for each district. The ratio is based on the total value of property in each district, which is then divided by the number of public school students in the district. While there are 44,000 students in the ERCSD, funding is only given for 11,000 of them, as 33,000 are to nonpublic school students whose homes are included when calculating property value but whose numbers are not included for funding. This creates a skewed perspective by the state, which claims that the ERCSD is one of the wealthiest districts in the state when the truth is that it’s one of the poorest, as per the Census 2022 statistics. The bill, sponsored by Senator Bill Weber and Assemblyman Karl Brabenec, will provide funding for busing, textbooks, and special education, saving the school district millions of dollars annually and resolving the budget problems of the district. 

Senator Weber shares that he expects elected officials, local school district superintendents, board members, and the head of BOCES to attend, along with concerned residents who are highly encouraged to attend and other highly interested parties.