Gov. Kathy Hochul says she now opposes cutting funding to some schools with declining enrollment — a major reversal from her budget proposal earlier this year that sought the move to rein in spending.
A rep for Hochul wrote in a statement to The Post on Tuesday that the governor no longer supports such cuts, departing from what had been a core pillar of her plan earlier this year.
The switch comes as the governor faces a potentially contentious re-election bid in 2026 and can little afford to make enemies with the state’s largest public-sector union, the New York State United Teachers.
“As we craft the upcoming Executive Budget, the Governor believes we should avoid proposals that would negatively impact school budgets, such as eliminating the hold-harmless provision of the Foundation Aid formula” covering such reductions, the statement from Hochul’s office said.
The governor had been rebuffed by the legislature in making the cuts earlier this year. Budget negotiators agreed to punt talks over overhauling the school-funding formula to next year.
At the time, Hochul was still adamant about making changes to the formula and reining in wasteful school spending.
“In the long term, it just doesn’t make sense to keep paying for empty seats in classrooms,” Hochul wrote in an April statement announcing this years budget agreement.
“And we can’t continue to have large sums of money sit in school district reserves when that money could be used in helping students in low-income neighborhoods and communities of color or return to the taxpayers. And we can’t continue to fund our schools based on politics. Our decisions must be guided by where the need is greatest,” she said.
State teachers union President Melinda Person said in a statement Tuesday, “Updating the outdated funding formula is a critical step forward.
“However, we remain concerned about recommendations that arbitrarily lower the Foundation Aid amount instead of considering the necessary support for our schools’ evolving student populations. Any changes to the formula must prioritize stability and predictability for school districts.”
The state had asked the Rockefeller Institute of Government to study potential changes to the complex and largely outdated funding formula as part of its review of the current situation.
The institute’s report, released Monday evening, recommends phasing out some funding for wealthy school districts and those seeing population decreases.
While several lawmakers told The Post they were still reading through the 314-page-report, early reactions did not bode well for some of its recommendations.
“I have substantial concerns about some proposals, including the recommendation to phase out [a portion of funding] which many districts rely upon to continue serving their communities, despite changes in enrollment,” state Senate Education Committee Chairwoman Shelley Mayer (D-Westchester) wrote in a statement.
Assembly Minority Leader Will Barclay (R-Oswego), posted to X, “Conversation around changes to Foundation Aid formula must carefully consider the impact changes will have on all school districts (rural, suburban & urban).”
Hochul may still have some middle ground to work out a deal that addresses other aspects of the wildly complex funding formula, including weighting for special-education programs and moving away from aspects that rely on outdated standardized testing results and demographic information.
Some parts of the formula are still based on data from the 2000 census.
Mayer and others largely praised Rockefeller’s study as a sober approach to addressing foundation aid.
“The Rockefeller people played it straight. They did what the legislature tasked them with. They did not get into the outcome side of things. The issue is input,” said Ken Girardin, director of research at the nonpartisan think tank the Empire Center, to The Post.
“They laid out the inconvenient truths the legislature doesn’t want to touch,” Girardin said.