Governor Hochul’s Proposed 2025 Budget Could Cut PPCSD Funding by as Much as 31%

Superintendent Brian Timm and two school board members traveled to Albany on Wednesday, Feb. 7, to advocate for Pine Plains Central School District after Governor Kathy Hochul’s 2025 proposed executive budget slashed rural school state aid. Prospective changes in how districts are funded could cause PPCSD’s state support to plummet by as much as 31%. 

The governor’s proposed $233 billion budget earmarks $35.3 billion for public education — the highest amount spent on school aid in New York’s history. Two–thirds of that, or $24.5 billion, will be used for Foundation Aid, the main source of state funding for public schools. That represents a $507 million increase over last year, but falls $420 million short of the expected total aid. 

Despite that hefty investment, almost half of the state’s 673 school districts would lose a significant amount of state funding because of two landmark changes: the end of a decades-old policy called Hold Harmless, which guaranteed that school districts would receive at least as much funding as in previous years, and a change in the 1993 formula to calculate Foundation Aid.

New York state legislators are scrambling to prioritize their constituents’ needs and begin negotiations with the governor’s office. The state constitution mandates the approval of the budget by April 1.

At Wednesday night’s Board of Education meeting, PPCSD Business Official Laura Rafferty explained that the state’s school aid calculation was a complex mix of student enrollment numbers, population density and wealth ratio, overlaid with the governor’s new lower inflationary number.

“Since we wouldn’t be protected by Hold Harmless anymore, our state funding would drop significantly. Densely populated low-income schools in urban areas are less affected,” she said. (Figures in the governor’s budget confirm, for example, that New York City schools would see a 2.5% increase in Foundation Aid.)

According to Timm, PPCSD stands to lose the most state support in Dutchess County. The district received $8.5 million last year in Foundation Aid, but, if the Governor’s proposed budget passes, it stands to lose $2 million this year — a drop worth nearly $2,500 per student. “It looks like Foundation Aid is going to decrease, but hopefully the final budget will give us a gradual off-ramp, instead of a dramatic cut in funding,” Timm said. “Our school could use reserves from capital fund projects that came in under budget to make up the deficit; we could do some re-allotments; we could also look at the tax levy.”

Timm, Board of Education President Amie Fredericks and board member Jim Griffin met with District 106 Assembly member Didi Barrett and with State Senator Michelle Hinchey, who represents the 41st district. “They gave us a good amount of time, and understood our concerns,” said Timm. “Our discussion was productive. They are well aware of the problem.”

Public education is a top priority for Barrett, who said that rural schools have been chronically underfunded by the state: “Hochul’s solution was to replace the outdated way of calculating funding. In the past there was one formula used for all, despite different school district needs: urban versus suburban versus rural schools. But the way it was redone disproportionately impacts small schools.”   

Barrett said she’s met with most of her district’s school superintendents. “Their enrollment isn’t significantly down, and the median income in our areas has always been an issue, that’s nothing new,” she said, referring to the fact that well-to-do homeowners in the Hudson Valley can skew funding calculations for rural schools. 

Hochul has said that increasing state aid each year can’t be sustained, and that schools with the highest needs should get most of the available funding. “I think her [determination of Foundation Aid] has more to do with population density, so Governor Hochul’s budget formula ends up favoring large urban areas,” Barrett said. “I’m going to the mat for our schools.”  

Hinchey is no less adamant about addressing the issue. In an email to the Herald she wrote, “Funding our public schools is one of the most important responsibilities we have as a Legislature, and the proposed cuts we’re seeing to education funding this year are untenable. It is imperative that we not only continue to hold our schools harmless but also address the longstanding neglect of our rural schools, which have consistently received insufficient Foundation Aid.”   

Hinchey believes that how public schools are funded in New York state must be re-evaluated: “Our students and teachers deserve fair and equitable funding, and I will continue to advocate for our local districts throughout this budget process.” She negotiated last year for the expansion of the free School Breakfast and Lunch Program. As a result, eligibility rules were relaxed, and more school districts across the state, including Pine Plains, qualified for the program. 

Timm remains cautiously optimistic. “It’s going to be a challenge,” he said. “We are starting work on two different five-year budget projections for PPCSD: one with Foundation Aid, and one with it being phased out. No matter what happens, we’ll be ready.”