Comprehensive, detailed report gives policymakers menu of options to update formula to better serve school districts’ needs
Report follows months of public engagement, collaboration with education stakeholders, and education policy research
Albany, NY — The Rockefeller Institute of Government today released its report on New York State’s Foundation Aid education funding formula. The full report is available to the public here.
While a landmark achievement in progressive education funding when first enacted in 2007, several of the components in the state’s Foundation Aid formula have become outdated and out-of-step with school district needs and responsibilities.
In 2023-24, Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature enacted a budget that fully funded the formula for the first time since its inception. With Foundation Aid fully funded, the enacted 2024-25 state budget called for the Rockefeller Institute to conduct a study to assess the formula and share recommendations for modernizing and improving it.
A little more than seven months after that mandate was issued, the Rockefeller Institute of Government has produced an exhaustive 314-page report that comprehensively examines the Foundation Aid formula and its components and presents to policymakers a menu of options to update it. The report follows months of public engagement and collaboration with education stakeholders across the state. The report’s recommendations, while non-binding, aim to give policymakers reasonable and effective tools for improving the overall education funding system in New York State while granting school administrators the reliability and predictability they need to lead their schools.
Broadly, the Institute’s recommendations seek to:
- Modernize poverty measures so they more accurately reflect current conditions and actual levels of economic distress in communities.
- Update and refine measures that reflect relative cost of living differences across the state.
- Account for the greater literacy instruction needs that districts face for many new English Language Learners.
- Change the formula to remove elements better treated separately as categorical aides.
A full list of specific and detailed recommendations and options is provided in the report.
The report is informed by testimony from stakeholders across the education community. In July and August, the Institute held five public hearings across New York State to hear from students, parents and guardians, school district leaders, education finance experts, and members of New York’s education advocacy organizations. The Institute also received more than 1,800 written comments through its Written Comment Submission Form, which was open for 12 weeks during the summer. Recordings of the hearings and all written comments are available through the Foundation Aid Study page.
Beyond its recommendations for improving the Foundation Aid formula, the report—“A Review of New York State’s Foundation Aid Education Funding Formula With Recommendations For Improvement”—provides an overview of the history of the formula and how it works, detailed documentation of some of the formula’s current limitations, an extensive review of the academic literature surrounding school finance, and a review of how select other states fund their K-12 education systems.