Adequacy

The state must assure that all school districts have the resources needed to provide their schoolchildren with the opportunity for a sound basic education.

• The resources needed for a sound basic education should be based on helping all students satisfy the Regents Learning Standards and graduation requirements.
• The level of resources must take into account differences arising from pupil needs and regional variations in the cost of providing education.
• School finance reform must address the state as a whole. Effective statewide reform offers the best hope for sustainable help for New York City.

Equity

The state's school finance system must offset variations in communities' ability to pay for education from local sources, so that all districts can give their schoolchildren the chance for a sound basic education without overburdening local taxpayers.

• Equity should be pursued through "leveling-up" state aid to poorer school districts.
• Equity requires similar treatment of districts with similar characteristics.
• A local funding contribution is expected. Increases in state aid intended to rectify educational inadequacies should not be used to diminish local efforts. The Big 5 cities should be required to maintain appropriate local effort on behalf of their school systems.

Simplicity

Making school finance simpler and easier to understand would allow the public to hold state officials more accountable for the choices they make in funding schools.

• An easy to understand school finance system is essential and state aid calculations should be more self-evident, so that they can be understood, evaluated and debated by more people.
• A simpler system would be easier for school and state officials to administer, reducing costs and averting the occurrence of unwelcome surprises to district and state budgets.

Predictability

Schools need more stability and predictability in funding in order to plan more effectively.

• State aid should be distributed through consistent, uniformly applied formulas with built in annual adjustments for cost-based factors that are not subject to annual manipulation.
• Fundamental considerations such as the cost of a sound basic education, regional cost factors and pupil needs adjustments should be reviewed and updated on a regular schedule.
• The Governor and Legislature should adopt state aid on a rolling, two-year basis.

Accountability

Any new accountability requirements should complement or adapt those already in place, not simply layer new mandates on top of old.

• Through annual budget votes, board elections, school report cards, property tax report cards, reporting of state results, and new NCLB requirements, schools are already held to high standards of accountability. Reforms should streamline existing planning and reporting requirements for districts, and make the existing structures more understandable for parents and taxpayers.
• When districts are given additional resources to ensure they have the capacity to provide a sound basic education, additional accountability is warranted to ensure that the resources are used to produce that result.
• The State Education Department should be responsible for oversight of school performance.

Flexibility

Reforms should assure districts have sufficient general purpose aid to help fund the resources needed to deliver the opportunity for a sound basic education.

The state should be cautious in substituting its judgment in setting funding priorities for that of local leaders and communities who best know the strengths and weaknesses of their district schools.

Changes to or elimination of categorical programs should only be supported if it is clear that the need that led to their creation have been clearly addressed or can be met through other means.

Approved, November 2004