Governor David Paterson has unveiled plans for mid-year budget cuts to close the state's current year budget deficit, now estimated to be at least $3 billion. This is the first installment of a two-year $5 billion Deficit Reduction Plan.

The plan would cut School Aid by a total of $686 million for the 2009-10 school year, or 3 percent. The cut would amount to 4.5 percent of undisbursed aid payments.

While the STAR program has been spared, additional reductions are proposed for higher education and categorical program expenditures such as extended school day, targeted Pre-K, summer special education, nonpublic school aid, school breakfast/lunch reimbursement, Timothy's Law, etc.

School Aid reduction would be structured progressively based on local fiscal capacity, student need, and residential tax effort. Reductions will range from 3% to 9% of a school district's state aid allotment. However, in application, 9% of (low) state aid to an affluent district translates to much fewer dollars than 3% of (high) state aid for a poor district.

As such, the hardest hit school districts will continue to be those that are most dependent on state aid, our low wealth/high needs districts.

We must recall the lessons learned from a similar measure taken 20 years ago. With the imposition of mid-year school aid cuts, tax payers saw their schools ability to provide a full range of programs and services hampered, the state's ability to attract business diminished, and a resultant steady rise of local property taxes to try to catch up. Many school districts have still not recovered from the fiscal injury incurred. More importantly, the impact on students was to create a generation of remedial work, lack of college readiness, and increased inequities between districts with the means to manage the cuts and those districts more dependent on state aid.

With crisis comes opportunity. We ask that you contact Senator Fuschillo and Assemblyman Saladino and let them know that this fiscal crisis is their opportunity to find real solutions that do not break the back of public education but that support and sustain quality public education for all of NY's children.

Go to the NYS PTA website to link to the legislators website and for assistance in writing a letter.
The time is now.
Please do not delay.

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