Education
Finance
and Accountability
Program
(EFAP)
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John Yinger Director |
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William Duncombe Associate Director |
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Jerry Miner Senior Associate |
Ross Rubenstein Senior Associate |
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Robert Bifulco Senior Associate |
Latest News
on
Campaign for
Fiscal Equity v. New York
State must reform formula for funding education
By WILLIAM DUNCOMBE and JOHN YINGER
First published: Sunday, April 18, 2004The final report of the New York State Commission on Education Reform, otherwise known as the Zarb Commission, contains a complicated set of proposals that would shift the blame for educational failure in poor urban school districts away from the state and onto the districts themselves. This is not reform; it is an attempt to evade the state's own responsibilities.
In its ruling last summer in Campaign for Fiscal Equity vs. New York, the Court of Appeals required the state to reform the education finance system so that New York City would receive the ``funding level necessary to provide city students with the opportunity for a sound basic education.'' Neither the Zarb Commission nor the Standard & Poor's report on which it builds takes this charge seriously. Full story available in The Albany Times Union.
School funding eludes answer
Albany -- Panel unable to chart clear path to bring state into compliance with court ruling on aid inequities; legislators decry lateness of report.
By ERIN DUGGAN, Capital Bureau
March 30, 2004A special commission capped seven months of deliberation Monday by failing to answer how New York can reach court-ordered equity in school funding.
Instead of delivering a firm recommendation on how much to spend and where to get the money for schools, the Commission on Education and Reform threw those questions back to the divided state Legislature just three days before lawmakers are supposed to finish their annual budget.
Legislative leaders expressed disappointment in the lack of a firm direction from the commission, and at the lateness of its report. Full story available in The Albany Times Union.
Panel Reports on Cost of 'Sound Basic Education,' but Many Say the Question Remains
By AL BAKER
March 30, 2004ALBANY, March 29 - Lawmakers, lobbyists and others in Albany said they were left puzzled on Monday by the findings of a long-promised report from the chairman of Gov. George E. Pataki's commission on educational financing.
Many said it simply muddied the question of how the state would meet a Court of Appeals order to improve New York City schools and whether the solution would be addressed in this year's state budget. Full story available in The Albany Times Union.
Making a List and Checking It as School Funds Are Awaited By DAVID M. HERSZENHORN
March 30, 2004
The Zarb Commission report released yesterday did not quite answer how much extra money city schools will be getting in the years ahead as a result of a lawsuit filed by the Campaign for Fiscal Equity - or how much of the burden will be shouldered by the city, state and federal governments. But city officials have already begun spending the extra state education aid - theoretically, at least. Full story available in The New York Times.
State Commission Wants Billions to Help Schools
By GREG WINTER
March 30, 2004
Providing a sound basic education to every child in New York will cost an extra $2.5 billion to $5.6 billion a year and require aggressive new measures to ensure that the money is well spent, Gov. George E. Pataki's Commission on Education Reform said yesterday.The commission's recommendations are a response to a ruling last June by New York's highest court, which ordered the state to figure out what it would cost to improve New York City's schools and then provide enough money to do so. Only four months remain before the court's deadline. Full story available in The New York Times.
Panel Seeks More Time to Figure Education Cost
By GREG WINTER
February 25, 2004With time running out before the state budget is due, Frank G. Zarb, the chairman of Gov. George E. Pataki's education commission, has asked for an extra two weeks to calculate how much it will cost to provide every schoolchild in New York City with a sound basic education.
The request, which the governor's office said yesterday would probably be granted, could complicate the Legislature's pledge to deliver a budget on time this spring, after 19 consecutive years of missing the New York's April 1 deadline. Full story available in The New York Times.
Pataki Plan Going Private
Seeks funds for education analysis
By ELLEN YAN
February 8, 2004
Gov. George Pataki is seeking private money to hire Standard & Poor's for a court-ordered analysis of education costs, circumventing the state comptroller's thumbs-down of a publicly funded contract with the firm due to a potential conflict of interest.
"We're making arrangements, figuring out right now how we'll pay for it," Dan Kinley, executive director of Pataki's Commission on Education Reform, said Friday without giving details. "We're looking into all the options to do that." Full story available in New York Newsday.
Solution adds $7B to school spending
Victor in suit over state aid says increased funds needed to fix problem
By RICK KARLIN
February 5, 2004The organization that won a major lawsuit against New York's school funding system said Wednesday the state will have to spend another $7 billion on education over the next four years to fix the problem.
"I think it's extremely realistic, primarily because the highest court in the state says it needs to be done," said Michael Rebell, executive director and chief lawyer at Campaign for Fiscal Equity.
Rebell also said even more money will be needed for construction projects, and suggested the state take on a larger role in funding schools. Full story available in The Albany Times Union.
New York Lawmakers Still Wrestling Over School Financing Mandate
By AL BAKER
February 5, 2004ALBANY, Feb. 1 - In Albany, the equivalent of taking a Rorschach test these days is defining the meaning of a "sound basic education.''
The interpretation of those words holds serious ramifications, not just politically, but also financially, for New York, its elected officials and schoolchildren in urban, suburban and rural districts.
A chorus of Republicans, including the governor and the Senate majority leader, say New York already has an expensive education system; their job is changing it to make sure the existing money is spent wisely before adding one more dime. Full story available in The New York Times.
$4 Billion More Is Needed to Fix City's Schools, Study Finds By GREG WINTER
February 5, 2004
With New York State under a court mandate to provide a "sound basic education" to New York City schoolchildren, the plaintiffs in the case put forward a study yesterday showing that an extra $4.1 billion a year would be needed to achieve that aim. The study, more than 18 months in the making, is the first in which anyone has tried to figure out the cost of making sure that every child in the city - or anywhere else in the state, for that matter - is able to obtain a Regents high school diploma.
But it is unclear whether the court will back its findings, or even equate a basic education with a Regents diploma. Rather, the document will probably serve as the starting point for what is expected to be a vigorous debate in the State Legislature over how the state can meet the court order in a year when it faces a $5.1 billion deficit. Full story available in The New York Times.
Winners Want $7B More For Schools
By MICHAEL GORMLEY
February 4, 2004
ALBANY, N.Y. -- The winners of a landmark court case against the state said Wednesday that school aid needs to be increased by $7 billion nearly half of current spending to satisfy the court's order.
The Campaign for Fiscal Equity, a group backed by teachers unions and the state School Boards Association, said more than three-quarters of all schools including the New York City school district are under funded according to its long awaited "costing-out study" released Wednesday. Full story in New York Newsday.
Mayor Opposes Pataki on Gambling Funds for Schools
By MICHAEL COOPER January 27, 2004
ALBANY, Jan. 26 - Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said on Monday that he opposed Gov. George E. Pataki's proposal to use gambling money to comply with a court order requiring the state to come up with more aid for New York City schools, saying it would not provide a stable, predictable way of raising money. In a soft-spoken, diplomatic way, Mr. Bloomberg also criticized the governor's budget proposals on several fronts during a trip here to press the city's needs. The mayor said that some of Mr. Pataki's proposed Medicaid cuts would end up costing the city money and complained that the city stood to lose some education aid under his plan. Full story available in The New York Times.
Comptroller Rejects Contract to Find Solid Education's Cost
By AL BAKER January 22, 2004
ALBANY, Jan. 21 - State Comptroller Alan G. Hevesi on Wednesday rejected a no-bid consulting contract awarded to Standard & Poor's to determine the cost of a sound, basic education for New York's schoolchildren. The $1.2 million contract was awarded to Standard & Poor's School Evaluation Services division by a commission that had been asked by Gov. George E. Pataki to come up with recommendations to fix inequities in financing for New York's schools. Mr. Pataki, a Republican, gave the commission, which is headed by Frank G. Zarb, until March to suggest the costs of complying with an order last June by the state's Court of Appeals. Full story available in The New York Times.
Adding Politics to School Formula
By SUMATHI REDDY
January 22, 2004
Albany - Their task sounds deceptively straightforward: derive a specific dollar figure for how much it costs to educate a student adequately.
But in a year when state lawmakers are being asked to take the politics out of a perplexing formula for financing the highest education costs in the country, politics, it seems, remains a complicating, if not dominant, force. Full story available in New York Newsday.
Democrats Criticize Plan to Use Gambling Revenue to Meet Court Mandate for Better Schools
By MARC SANTORA and GREG WINTER
January 21, 2004 ALBANY, Jan. 20 - Seeking to meet a court mandate to improve the quality of education for New York schoolchildren, one of the most politically explosive and challenging issues facing the state, Gov. George E. Pataki has turned to an old standby: gambling revenue.
In his budget address on Tuesday, Mr. Pataki proposed creating a new fund "to meet the cost of a sound basic education," using money from video lottery terminals, devices similar to slot machines, which are now planned for eight racetracks and up to eight other new sites across the state. The first terminals are scheduled to start operation this month at the Saratoga Raceway.
The governor forecast that receipts from the machines would total $325 million in the 2004-05 school year. As new machines are installed over the next several years, the total revenues would rise to $2 billion annually, according to his proposal. Full story available in The New York Times.
January 14, 2004 New York Senate Leader Says Additional Money for Schools May Not Be Needed
By AL BAKER
ALBANY, Jan. 13 — The Republican leader of the State Senate said on Tuesday that next year's state budget need not include billions of dollars more for schools to satisfy a court mandate to offer children a "sound basic education."
At a news conference, the Senate majority leader, Joseph L. Bruno, also called for reforms to break the habit of passing late budgets in New York, a practice that has gone on for 19 straight years.
Mr. Bruno said he expected the state to pass a budget this year without addressing a solution to the school equity issues raised by the Campaign for Fiscal Equity on behalf of children in the New York City schools. Full story available in The New York Times.
Defining a sound, basic education in N.Y.
STEPHEN M. SALAND
January 18, 2004
Long before the advent of "spin" and "spin doctors," Abraham Lincoln counseled that you could fool some of the people all of the time and all of the people some of the time, but you could not fool all of the people all of the time.Were President Lincoln alive today, he would have smiled knowingly had he observed the recent announcement of the Campaign for Fiscal Equity, through its executive director, Michael Rebell, as he demanded that Governor Pataki and the state Legislature add at least $2 billion in state aid to public education in the 2004-2005 fiscal year. FULL STORY available in The Albany Times Union.
Group Says at Least $6 Billion More Is Needed to Fix New York Schools
By GREG WINTER
December 19, 2003Satisfying a court mandate to offer children "a sound, basic education" will cost New York State at least an extra $6 billion over three to four years, the plaintiffs in the case said yesterday.
The exact cost of heeding the court order is still a moving target, according to the plaintiffs, a group called the Campaign for Fiscal Equity. While it commissioned an independent study to calculate the cost of meeting the state's educational standards some 15 months ago, a final figure may still be months away.
In the interim, the group called upon Gov. George E. Pataki to put aside an extra $2 billion in the budget he must prepare by January, describing the figure as a down payment that will set the tone for the Legislature and signal the court that the state will meet its July deadline for fixing the schools. FULL STORY available in The New York Times.
Leader of New Education Panel Is Used to the FrayBy GREG WINTER and AL BAKER September 7, 2003
Barely 24 hours after taking charge of the state's most important education commission in years, Frank G. Zarb was on the phone trying to keep it from slipping into political insignificance. He sized up the melee set off by Gov. George E. Pataki's decision last week to mold the panel single-handedly. Then he made a palliative call to Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, a man he calls a friend, who had denounced the governor's move as a cruel hoax only the night before.
By noon, he had also reached out to Sheldon Silver, the Democratic Assembly speaker who lambasted the commission as a bastion of cronyism before it had even met. And Mr. Zarb had called the governor's office, ordering up a list of education experts from across the state, regardless of their political loyalties and penchant for criticism. FULL STORY available in The New York Times.
Bloomberg Aide Rejects Idea of Governor's Schools Panel
By WINNIE HU and AL BAKER September 6, 2003
Gov. George E. Pataki, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver celebrated the opening of a new high school yesterday in Lower Manhattan, cracking jokes and making light of the rift over a new education panel appointed by the governor. But even as the mayor pretended that his only difference with the governor was over who would get to march with Jennifer Lopez in future parades, the two men remained locked in their conflict.
Governor Pataki appeared to offer an olive branch, promising to broaden the makeup of the education panel he announced this week to include more people from New York City. The governor has so far named 16 of his 25 panelists. FULL STORY available in The New York Times.
New Members Added to Panel on School AidBy GREG WINTER October 4, 2003
G
ov. George E. Pataki rounded out his commission on education reform yesterday, naming six more members and picking a director to help guide the panel through the task of overhauling the state's school financing system. By adding more educators to the roster, the governor appears to have responded to criticism that the commission lacked the expertise to tackle technical challenges, like revamping the formula for distributing money to schools. FULL STORY available in The New York Times.
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