Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele, Jr. (I, D, WF-Sag Harbor) announced he helped craft the Assembly’s “Families First” state budget proposal that would strengthen our children’s education by significantly increasing funding for schools and helping ensure educators have the resources and support they need.

The Assembly’s budget proposal provides a total of $23.95 billion in education funding, an increase of $1.8 billion for the 2015-16 school year (E.203). That’s over $830 million more than the governor’s budget proposal and represents the largest increase in school aid since 2008-09. It also increases Foundation Aid by over $1 billion for the 2015-16 school year, the largest increase in Foundation Aid since 2008-09. The plan provides $456 million in restoration to the Gap Elimination Adjustment (GEA) based in part on district and student need, growth in enrollment, growth in the number of students who are English-language learners and the disproportionate impact of GEA reductions. While this GEA restoration is step in the right direction, we ultimately must eliminate the GEA.

“The key to the future success of our children and the economic security of our families is a good education,” said Assemblyman Fred Thiele. “Giving our children the best education possible means providing schools and teachers with the resources they need to succeed, and that’s exactly what the Assembly’s budget proposal would do.”

Increasing funding for our schools

The Assembly’s budget proposal would remove the governor’s requirement that increases in school aid be tied to his proposed changes to the teacher evaluation system, the takeover of failing schools, changes to charter schools – including an increased cap on charter schools – and changes to teacher preparation, certification, dismissal and tenure.

“I am disappointed the governor linked increased funding for our schools to programs that will direct money away from our traditional public schools,” said Thiele. “Moreover, the governor’s failure to release school aid runs along with the executive budget proposal places a real burden on school districts and the state’s taxpayers as schools try to prepare budgets for voter approval in May.”

The Assembly’s budget proposal:

• Updates expense-based aids to include an additional $273 million in reimbursements to school districts, an increase of $90 million over the governor’s budget proposal;
• Includes $10 million in new funding for school districts with a growing enrollment of students who are English-language learners; and
• Provides $10 million in additional Special Services Aid for Career and Technology Education (CTE) programs for districts that do not have BOCES programs.

“We all share the goal of providing every student with a sound, quality education,” said Thiele. “The Assembly’s budget proposal focuses on increasing educational opportunities and providing students with a pathway for learning and success, and it accomplishes this without holding education funding hostage to a controversial set of changes.”

The Assembly budget rejects the governor’s proposal for an additional $5 million in Master Teacher Awards and instead proposes that 20 percent of the undistributed Master Teacher Awards funds from 2013-14 be allocated to high-performing teachers in bilingual education, teachers certified in English as a Second Language (ESL) or teachers with dual certification in a content area and special education. STEM teachers would continue to be eligible for these awards.

Investing in statewide full-day UPK

The Assembly’s budget proposal increases grant funding for full-day universal pre-kindergarten (UPK) programs by $80 million. When combined with new and existing state pre-kindergarten programs, the Assembly provides $835 million to support pre-kindergarten programs run by districts and community-based organizations.

“The Assembly has long been a leader in expanding access to pre-kindergarten programs,” said Assemblyman Fred Thiele. “There’s no question that an earlier start to education leads to greater success in college and careers for students. That’s why our budget proposal makes it easier for schools to create new universal full-day pre-K programs, so our children have more opportunities for a high-quality early education.”

Expanding educational opportunities

The Assembly’s budget proposal also includes:

• An additional $5 million over the governor’s proposal for private and parochial schools for a total of $171.4 million;
• An additional $1 million in safety grants for nonpublic schools, for a total of $5.5 million;
• $14.3 million to restore Teacher Resources and Computer Training Center funding;
• An additional 2.4 percent in funding for special act school districts, 853 schools and 4201 schools for the blind and deaf, for a total of approximately $20 million;
• $1 million to restore adult literacy education funding, for a total of $6.29 million;
• $1 million to increase bilingual education services, for a total of $14.5 million;
• $1 million to increase funding for independent living centers, for a total of $13.4 million;
• $475,000 to restore funding for the Executive Leadership Institute; and
• $1.5 million in restorations for the Consortium for Worker Education (CWE), for a total of $13 million.