Eyeing a change in school funding

With another school year set to get under way, the conversation about school funding has reignited.

The Rockefeller Institute of Government held a public hearing about foundation aid for public school funding on July 30 at Weldon E. Howitt Middle School in Farmingdale. Charmise Desiré, a Uniondale Board of Education trustee, spoke on behalf of the district.

Desiré, who is also the New York State School Boards Association’s Area 11 director, took to the stage to express her desire for the foundation aid formula to change.

“Seventeen years have passed since the foundation aid formula was established, yet we continue to operate under outdated measures that fail to address today’s educational realities,” Desiré said. “We need to move beyond outdated models and ensure that funding reflects the true costs of education in our diverse and changing communities.”

Foundation aid, a type of state funding for public schools, is based on a formula that calculates various educational needs, from estimated costs per student to how much local communities can contribute to their districts. The formula was created in 2007, and has not been updated since then.

Desiré argued that times have drastically changed in those 17 years — “practically an entire cycle of a young person’s education.”

In her remarks, she covered many points that district officials in Uniondale and elsewhere believe need to be considered in a reworked state funding system, including the need for increased mental health services, stronger security, and safer technology.

Desiré also expressed the concern certain districts have about charter schools taking large portions of funding from public schools, as well as the drastically different financial standings — and needs — of communities across the state that have been receiving funds based on the same formula.

“We need a more in-depth look at life in different parts of the state, and costs associated with different regions,” she said.

A Uniondale trustee since 2018, Desiré began her third three-year term this summer. Early this year, she started her first two-year term as NYSSBA’s Area 11 director, representing Nassau County’s 56 public school districts.

“I am immensely proud to have Charmise Desiré as a board trustee,” Uniondale district Superintendent Monique Darrisaw-Akil said in a news release. “In addition to her role on our board, she also serves as a representative of the New York State School Boards Association, advocating tirelessly for the needs of our students and schools. Her dedication and expertise are vital in our ongoing efforts to secure the support necessary for our students’ success.”

The hearing in Farmingdale was one of five public gatherings the Rockefeller Institute held across the state this summer. Attendees were allowed to give live testimony at the hearings or submit comments online. The goal, according to the institute’s website, was to “conduct a study to assess the State’s Foundation Aid education funding formula and discuss potential modifications to how the formula works.”

“The purpose of the hearings,” Joel Tirado, the institute’s director of communications, told the Herald, “was to gather feedback from the education community and the broader public about whether and how the Foundation Aid formula is serving schools, and to solicit feedback on potential modifications to the formula that might make it more representative of the on-the-ground realities that schools are facing.”

The institute is a public policy think tank that conducts research to determine solutions to problems that New York faces, according to its website. With the hearings completed, the next step is for the institute to review both the live and online comments and include the feedback in its final report to Gov. Kathy Hochul and the State Legislature, which is due by Dec. 1.

To learn more about the institute, visit RockInst.org.

Have an opinion about state aid for schools? Send a letter to jbessen@liherald.com.