Approved SFY 2023-24 Budget Includes $34 Billion in School Aid

Speaker Carl Heastie and Education Committee Chair Michael Benedetto today announced the approved State Fiscal Year (SFY) Budget will include $34 billion in General Support for Public Schools (GSPS), an increase of $3 billion, or 9.4 percent over the 2022-23 school year (SY). The enacted budget also includes $24 billion to complete the phase in of the Foundation Aid formula.

“Year after year, the Assembly Majority has been a tireless advocate for our schools to ensure that every child has access to a high-quality public education,” said Speaker Heastie. “This year’s enacted budget reflects our continued commitment to the students who need it most.”

“As a former educator, I know the transformative power of education,” said Assemblymember Benedetto. “I am very proud of the historic investment we have made in our public schools with this year’s enacted budget.”

“Libraries are such an essential resource that they are truly the cornerstone of our communities,” said Assemblymember Woerner. “My Assembly Majority colleagues and I fought to ensure in this year’s budget that libraries remain valuable resources for every community across our state.”

The enacted budget includes a $2.6 billion increase to fully fund Foundation Aid for the first time since the formula was created in 2007. The plan also includes $150 million in new funding for Universal Prekindergarten programs.

Additionally, duplicative reporting is eliminated so schools can focus on teaching and learning instead of administrative burdens. 

The spending plan also includes $134.6 million to help provide full reimbursement for school meals to districts that can participate in the federal Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) program. The federal government is reviewing a plan that would reduce the percentage of students required to be receiving free lunch from 40 percent to 25 percent to qualify for participation in the CEP program. This federal change combined with the full state reimbursement included in the budget will provide free school meals to up to an additional 300,000 New York students.

The enacted budget also includes $58.4 million for early college high school and Pathways in Technology (P-TECH) programs, a $20 million increase from SY 2022-23. These programs allow students to earn college credits, or even an associate degree, by the time they graduate high school.

For over a decade, the state funding methodology for schools for students with disabilities has been both overly complicated and inadequate. The enacted budget includes $2.5 million for the State Education Department to design a new methodology to help bring stability to this sector and to make sure that all students are receiving the education that they deserve.

The plan also includes $112 million of funding for Private Schools for the Blind and Deaf (4201 schools); $9.3 million for Adult Literacy Education; $13 million for the Consortium for Worker Education (CWE); and $385,000 for bilingual teachers training.

Seven years ago, New York became the first state in the nation to fund the My Brother’s Keeper initiative. The initiative focuses on family and community engagement, professional development, the expansion and development of exemplary school practices and models, and addresses issues related to restorative justice and racial disparities in education. The SFY 2023-24 Assembly Budget includes $18 million in ongoing funding for the My Brother’s Keeper Programs for a total of $144 million in funding since the program’s creation.

The SFY 2023-24 Budget also includes $99.6 million in aid to public libraries, $1 million in funding to revive the Summer School for the Arts program, as well as $176,000 to ensure that every library system receives a minimum of $6,000 for summer reading programs.