School aid on Long Island: Hochul proposes 4.6% increase for 2025-26 school year

Long Island schools would get a windfall of nearly $229 million in additional state aid — a 4.6% increase — for the 2025-26 academic year under a budget package proposed Tuesday by Gov. Kathy Hochul.

The plan, if approved by state legislators later this year, would boost total funding assistance for schools in Nassau and Suffolk counties to $5.2 billion. That's part of a proposed statewide package totaling nearly $37 billion. 

Hochul's latest plan is substantially higher than the raise of just over 3% she proposed for the Island at this time last year. That plan, which would have cut aid to 44 districts in the region, was widely protested and eventually dropped by the governor in favor of a more generous package.

Among local districts that would see major gains under the governor's plan are Oceanside, with a 14.46% aid increase; Valley Stream 24 with 13.25%; Elmont at 10.11%; Middle Country at 9.31% and Wyandanch at 9.13%. Seventeen districts, including Port Washington and Montauk, would see their aid decrease under the proposal.

Aid formula updated

In addition to extra money, Hochul's latest proposal would replace outdated poverty rates from the 2000 census — which have been used to calculate aid to districts — with more more recent figures. An updated formula has long been sought by Island school representatives, who argued  the earlier data did not take account of recent demographic changes in the region. 

Hochul and the State Legislature last year signaled a willingness to modernize the aid-distribution formula, earmarking $2 million for the Rockfeller Institute of Government to look into that issue and others. The Albany-based think tank in December released a 314-page report outlining recommended changes. 

“This will ensure that state dollars go to students who need them most, " Hochul said Tuesday in her annual budget message.

Initial reaction to Hochul's 2025-26 package was generally positive on the Island. 

"Overall, it's a very favorable proposal," said Bob Vecchio, executive director of the Nassau-Suffolk School Boards Association. 

He added, however, that state projections released Tuesday showed 67 districts on the Island out of 122 listed would get minimum "foundation" aid increases of 2% under the governor's plan.

Foundation aid is the biggest single source of school funding and based largely on districts' level of financial need. Other large forms of aid are reimbursement for expenses such as bus transportation and school-building renovations. 

"We would hope those districts would get a little more to keep up with inflation," Vecchio added. 

Most recent federal figures show inflation running at 2.9%.

Under state law, a final budget agreement is due to be reached by the governor and state legislators by April 1. 

State aid provides about 30% of school revenue in the Nassau-Suffolk region, with most of the remainder raised through local property taxes. School taxation accounts for more than 60% of homeowners' tax bills.   

Hochul's budget makes no mention of the state's so-called "save harmless" formula, which guarantees districts will receive at least as much aid in the coming year as they did in the current year even if their enrollments decline. The governor had proposed last year that "save harmless" be eliminated — a recommendation that raised a political firestorm at the time. 

Record increases

Hochul’s latest school-funding plan follows four years of substantial increases. The most dramatic of those increases came in a record-breaking three-year package designed to settle a legal dispute with New York City.

Between 2021-22 and 2023-24, school aid statewide rose by nearly $8 billion or 30%, to a total of nearly $34 billion. In Nassau and Suffolk counties, aid increased by $1.6 billion, or nearly 50%, for a total of $4.8 billion.

For 2024-25, statewide aid grew by another $1.3 billion, or 3.82%, to a total of $35.3 billion. The Island’s share increased by $205.6 million, or 4.24%, to a total of $5 billion.

When asked about the effects of the extra funding, some school representatives said state aid increases had allowed schools to make improvements they otherwise could not have afforded. Upgrades in recent years have ranged from new school ventilation systems and security measures, to enhanced student services in the form of psychological counseling, after-school tutoring and summer recreation.

“Over the three years, it was a great help to school districts in building programs, there’s no denying that,” Ryan Ruf, a longtime school business official, said.

Ruf is an assistant superintendent for business in the Massapequa district and a former president of a Nassau County organization representing school business officials.

On the other hand, some school representatives observed that while infusions of state aid have resulted in some improvement, they have not eliminated inequalities among districts on the Island in terms of tax burdens and student achievement.

“That inequity persists,” B.A. Schoen,  a regional expert on school funding from Baldwin, said.

Schoen is a board trustee for the Nassau BOCES and president of an advocacy group known as REFIT, which stands for Reform Educational Financing Inequalities Today. 

Schoen called on the state to go further to amend its school aid formula to make it more favorable to low-income districts.