ALBANY, N.Y. (May 9, 2025) — In response to the finalization of the New York State Budget, public education advocacy organization Alliance for Quality Education released the following statement:
“At a time when federal policies are gutting support for working families, New York had the opportunity to lead. This budget could have delivered real change: a fair and updated Foundation Aid formula, progress toward universal child care, and investments that support New York’s neediest communities. Instead, our leaders offered the usual political theater, half-measures, and backroom deals, delivering too little, too late, and abandoning the state’s most vulnerable communities,” said Zakiyah Shaakir-Ansari and Marina Marcou-O’Malley, Co-Executive Directors, Alliance for Quality Education.
“On school funding, the enacted budget largely adopted Governor’s proposed updates to the Foundation Aid formula, leaving a shortfall in the expected school funding increase for a number of districts across the state, including New York City. The increased weight for English Language Learners is a positive change, but falls far short of closing this gap. There will only be an update to the Regional Cost Index for Westchester, and although desperately needed and welcome, that was an update that needed to be made statewide to avoid shortchanging districts in other parts of the state. As a result, several districts will receive less than they would have without these changes, including, significantly New York City schools, which will receive hundreds of millions of dollars less than expected. The state spent millions on a study that offered recommendations to improve the formula, yet another task force formed by this governor to make recommendations that she didn’t even listen to.
“For years, parents and community members with AQE and other allied organizations have pushed for a holistic overhaul of the Foundation Aid formula that would better reflect the higher learning standards and address students’ needs today. This budget, adopting only the governor’s limited updates, shows the potential damage of such a piecemeal approach to updating the formula. Next year, classrooms across New York will have fewer resources, directly impacting students’ learning and opportunities. New York State’s work here cannot be done.
“Worse still, this budget weakens the state’s fragile commitment to educational equity by weakening substantial equivalency standards. The governor opened the door for some schools to bypass essential subjects like English and math. Every child, regardless of where they go to school, has a constitutional right to a sound basic education. The state has a legal and moral obligation to uphold that standard. Diluting the state’s substantial equivalency standard is a direct threat to that promise and an affront to children’s futures.
“The $400 million allocated for the Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP) is a hard-won victory, which unfortunately will only avert a crisis, not improve child care access. That win belongs to the parents, providers, and advocates who refused to let this crisis go unnoticed. Let this be a lesson: the governor needs to put real dollars in the child care system, not just use policy and words to improve her public image. Families, providers, and advocates across the state worked tirelessly to expand eligibility for the program but the state did not adequately fund it.
“But that achievement stands in stark contrast to the complete disregard for the child care workforce. Not a single dollar in this budget was allocated to raise wages for early educators—a majority of whom are women of color. We cannot build a sustainable, just child care system while continuing to exploit the very people holding it up.
“By dragging out budget negotiations for weeks, the Governor forced school districts and child care providers to make financial decisions in the dark, with no clear sense of what funding they would receive. Justice for children should never be negotiated behind closed doors. It must be built by taxing the ultra-rich and making bold, sustained investments in the people and systems that need it most. Now, after weeks of waiting, families already stretched thin are again being told to settle for crumbs. The enacted budget falls far short of meeting this moment, and will have lasting damage in classrooms, child care centers, and communities across the state.”