New bill aims to rescind current statewide school funding formula
ALBANY – State Senator James Seward (R-51st Senate District) is backing legislation that would repeal the Gap Elimination Adjustment, which has cost public school districts statewide billions of dollars in state aid over a five-year period.
The Gap Elimination Adjustment (GEA) was put in place in 2009 to partially reduce a $10 billion state deficit. Legislators voted to deduct from each school district’s state aid allocation to help fill the state’s revenue shortfall, shifting costs to local school districts.
The proposed bill, introduced in the State Senate in late January, would completely repeal the GEA.
“I voted against the GEA when it passed in 2009 and have been working to erase this curse on our local schools ever since,” Seward said in a media release last week. “This hurtful policy was simply a cash-grab by the state that left schools reeling and trying to recover ever since. It needs to end now.”
In 2011-2012, the GEA cut $2.56 billion statewide in school aid. Approximately $6.35 billion in state aid has been reduced to school districts over the past three years. The issue, Seward reasoned, is that schools turn to local taxpayers to make up some of the difference, putting more strain on property taxes.
The New York State School Board Association (NYSSBA), an organization representing more than 700 school boards across the state, has been calling for the eradication of the GEA – or at the very least, additional GEA reductions – for years. NYSSBA says the loss in state aid forces schools to make detrimental cuts to personnel, programs, services and extracurricular activities while at the same time, depleting reserves just to stay afloat. The organization claims that losses due to GEA reductions will continue to erode the quality of education that school districts can provide.
“Districts have been coping with the cumulative impact of four consecutive years of state aid losses resulting from the GEA,” reads a statement on the NYSSBA website (www.nyssba.org). “The State cannot continue to pass along its revenue shortfalls to local school districts.”
In a December interview with The Evening Sun, Norwich City School District Superintendent Gerard O’Sullivan said Norwich schools have felt the pinch. More than $7 million in state aid has been cut from the district over the course of five years, spurring school officials to scale back wherever necessary. While the tide has shifted somewhat and the district is seeing a slight increase in state aid this year, he said, there continues to be a seemingly insurmountable gap from where it one was.
Said Seward, “School administrators, especially in low wealth-high need districts, have been forced to cut educational programs to make ends meet. This means students may not graduate on time, or get into the college they want, or be prepared to start a career after high school.”
This year’s state budget reduces the GEA by $602 million – the single largest reduction in the GEA since it was implemented.
“One of my top priorities is to make certain our upstate, rural districts receive their fair share of funding,” added Seward. “The most meaningful step we can take to accomplish that goal, and relieve some of the burden schools and property taxpayers shoulder, is to end the GEA.”
The GEA elimination bill has been referred tot he Senate Education Committee. Companion legislation has been introduced in the State Assembly by Assemblyman Anthony J. Brindisi (D-Utica).
The Gap Elimination Adjustment (GEA) was put in place in 2009 to partially reduce a $10 billion state deficit. Legislators voted to deduct from each school district’s state aid allocation to help fill the state’s revenue shortfall, shifting costs to local school districts.
The proposed bill, introduced in the State Senate in late January, would completely repeal the GEA.
“I voted against the GEA when it passed in 2009 and have been working to erase this curse on our local schools ever since,” Seward said in a media release last week. “This hurtful policy was simply a cash-grab by the state that left schools reeling and trying to recover ever since. It needs to end now.”
In 2011-2012, the GEA cut $2.56 billion statewide in school aid. Approximately $6.35 billion in state aid has been reduced to school districts over the past three years. The issue, Seward reasoned, is that schools turn to local taxpayers to make up some of the difference, putting more strain on property taxes.
The New York State School Board Association (NYSSBA), an organization representing more than 700 school boards across the state, has been calling for the eradication of the GEA – or at the very least, additional GEA reductions – for years. NYSSBA says the loss in state aid forces schools to make detrimental cuts to personnel, programs, services and extracurricular activities while at the same time, depleting reserves just to stay afloat. The organization claims that losses due to GEA reductions will continue to erode the quality of education that school districts can provide.
“Districts have been coping with the cumulative impact of four consecutive years of state aid losses resulting from the GEA,” reads a statement on the NYSSBA website (www.nyssba.org). “The State cannot continue to pass along its revenue shortfalls to local school districts.”
In a December interview with The Evening Sun, Norwich City School District Superintendent Gerard O’Sullivan said Norwich schools have felt the pinch. More than $7 million in state aid has been cut from the district over the course of five years, spurring school officials to scale back wherever necessary. While the tide has shifted somewhat and the district is seeing a slight increase in state aid this year, he said, there continues to be a seemingly insurmountable gap from where it one was.
Said Seward, “School administrators, especially in low wealth-high need districts, have been forced to cut educational programs to make ends meet. This means students may not graduate on time, or get into the college they want, or be prepared to start a career after high school.”
This year’s state budget reduces the GEA by $602 million – the single largest reduction in the GEA since it was implemented.
“One of my top priorities is to make certain our upstate, rural districts receive their fair share of funding,” added Seward. “The most meaningful step we can take to accomplish that goal, and relieve some of the burden schools and property taxpayers shoulder, is to end the GEA.”
The GEA elimination bill has been referred tot he Senate Education Committee. Companion legislation has been introduced in the State Assembly by Assemblyman Anthony J. Brindisi (D-Utica).
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