School aid for Long Island to rise by more than $270M in 2025-26

Long Island school districts will get more than $270 million in additional state aid for the 2025-26 academic year — up nearly 5.4% from the current year — as part of a state budget that will provide a growing share of the region’s education funding.

The financial package for Nassau and Suffolk counties, totaling nearly $5.3 billion, represents a $42 million increase from Gov. Kathy Hochul’s original budget proposal in January.

In addition to extra money for school operations, new legislation agreed to by the governor and legislative leaders would also provide for free school meals for all students statewide. Another agreement would impose a bell-to-bell ban on students’ use of smartphones starting in September.

Albany lawmakers passed the state budget, which included a school-aid package totaling more than $37 billion statewide, Thursday night. The latest district-by-district figures were posted on the Assembly's website late Wednesday night, and include all money distributed to schools via numerical formulas. They do not include competitive grants. 

Budget approval came more than 30 days late. The state's legal deadline was April 1.

Hochul has defended the extra time spent on budget negotiations, saying that “good things take time.” For example, the governor cited the budget's inclusion of expanded family tax credits covering an estimated 355,000 children on the Island alone.

“The cost of living is too ... high for Long Island families, so I promised to put more money in your pockets — and we got it done,” Hochul said in a prepared statement last month.

Regional school leaders, on the other hand, said that the state’s tardiness made it harder for districts to do their own budget planning, because they didn’t know exactly how much state funding would be available next year.

Under state rules, districts were required this year to complete budget proposals by April 25. Public voting on those plans is scheduled for May 20.

“We’re putting out a budget without full numbers, and they’re asking us to meet a deadline,” said Rick Rennard, board president in the Comsewogue district in Port Jefferson Station, who was interviewed at a recent board workshop.

Out of the Island's 124 districts, 108 will receive expanded aid under Albany's posted plan. Most districts will see modest gains, though there are some sizable gainers. Hempstead's total aid will rise by 10.66%, Elmont's 13.13%, Deer Park's 12.8% and Middle Country's by 10.55%. 

"We are grateful that the budget has finally been approved," said Robert Vecchio, executive director of the Nassau-Suffolk School Boards Association.

Vecchio, in an email to Newsday, added that his organization would advocate in the future for a return to on-time state budgets, so that schools have "all the information they need to meet state required deadlines."

State picking up more of the tab

A Newsday analysis found that on Long Island, the portion of education spending covered by state aid has grown from about 21% during the 2015-16 school year to nearly 32% during the current 2024-25 school year. That’s a jump of about 10 percentage points, or $2.5 billion in dollar terms.

One regional financial expert, Joseph Dragone, said the trend is moving in the right direction because state aid is funded through income taxes, which are generally considered a more progressive form of raising revenues than property taxes. The idea is that income tax rates take more account of people’s ability to pay.

Still, the Island’s property taxes remain among the highest in the country, a number of national studies have shown.

“It certainly is good that the state is picking up a bigger share of the costs,” Dragone said in a phone interview. “But many people, including myself, think it’s still not enough, because the taxpayers are still suffering.”

Dragone serves as financial adviser to the Long Island Education Coalition, a group representing school boards, district superintendents and other regional educational leaders.

Some critics contend the state should take steps to ensure that higher spending results in better student performance. One organization taking that position is the Citizens Budget Commission, a research and advocacy group with offices in Albany and Manhattan.

In a January report entitled “Highest Costs, Middling Marks," the commission found that New York ranked first in school spending among states, with costs averaging $36,293 per student. Yet, the commission reported that student achievement here was only “middle of the pack” among states, as reflected in scores on tests sponsored by the federally funded National Assessment of Educational Progress.

"Our point has been to not just look at the next spending increase, but to also look at student performance and the way the state manages that,” said Patrick Orecki, the commission’s director of state studies, in a phone interview.

State education officials responded that NAEP tests are based on different academic standards than those used in New York, and that reporting based on different sets of standards was not reliable. Officials added that the state’s goals in spending heavily on public schools did not revolve around boosting test scores alone.

“The Commission’s report is rooted in unreliable research methods and confirmation bias, and its myopic conclusion — that more money equals higher test scores — barely scratches the surface of New York’s school spending,” said Rachel Connors, a department spokeswoman, in a prepared statement.