State Senate Republicans don’t want funding cuts for rural, suburban schools

Press Release, NYS Senate Republican Conference

ALBANY – The New York State Senate Republican Conference on Monday unveiled a legislative package aimed at keeping education a priority for all New Yorkers. Key among the legislative package’s provisions is reversing the devastating cuts to schools that Governor Hochul included in her budget proposal.

The elimination of the “hold harmless” provision that provides critical stability to local school districts is a glaring example of Albany Democrats’ misplaced priorities. This bloated $233 billion budget siphons state aid away from local schools while dedicating $2.4 billion in taxpayer dollars earmarked for migrants, bringing the total to $4.3 billion over the last two years.

The migrant crisis continues to get worse because the Democrats refuse to put an end to wrongheaded sanctuary city policies. Instead, they continue to throw more money at the issue and away from programs that provide for our New York families, including school aid.

Education should always be among the top priorities for state government, and the Senate Republican Conference is committed to ensuring that New Yorkers’ hard earned tax dollars help schools obtain the resources they need.

“The Governor’s budget is yet another example of the complete disregard for New York families and taxpayers – $4.3 billion over two years will be used to address the migrant crisis that was caused by open borders and sanctuary city policies supported by Democrats,” said Senate Republican Leader Rob Ortt. “At the same time, they are stripping millions of dollars from rural and suburban school districts. We are tired of misplaced priorities from Albany’s One-Party Rule, and our conference will fight to get all school districts the funding they deserve.”

The legislative package unveiled on Monday includes proposals that will keep our students safe and improve educational outcomes in school throughout the state:

• Reversing misguided changes in the education formula proposed in the Executive Budget that will take resources away from our local schools; and
• Closing the pandemic learning loss gap by ensuring unspent Federal emergency relief aid supports academic recovery programs, expanding state grant funding, creating an office in the State Education Department to track outcomes of such programs and focusing on future aid increases for early education to ensure students are provided a solid foundation for future academic challenges; and
• Prohibiting the housing of migrants in K-12 schools or on school grounds throughout the state (S.7391, Senator Alexis Weik);
• Committing greater resources for school building security by creating a school resource officer program to permit the employment of retired law enforcement officers and provide grants to school districts and non-public schools. (S.4985, Senator Oberacker).