Aligning State Policies and School Realities – Education Funding Recommendations for 2026-27

In 2023-24, New York State fully funded its Foundation Aid formula for schools, at last fulfilling a promise made in 2007. That reform and its funding are valuable achievements in public policy. But 18 years have passed, and some formula elements have never been updated, and problems have emerged with others. Also, we have learned more in the intervening years about how students’ school and life circumstances may affect their progress in learning. Building off the study completed by the Rockefeller Institute, the state began the work of updating Foundation Aid by replacing two measures of student poverty. More must be done and that work must continue.

Foundation Aid is the cornerstone in the state system of aid to its public schools, distributing $26.4 billion in funding and accounting for 71% of all state aid allocated by formulas. Other aid categories help school districts fund construction, student transportation, special education, prekindergarten, career and technical education, shared services, and instructional materials.

This paper offers recommendations on state funding and financial policies by the New York State Educational Conference Board—seven education leadership groups, representing parents, teachers, other school professionals, building administrators, superintendents, and boards of education throughout our state. Our goals are to ensure all our school districts can meet the needs of their students, without overburdening their local taxpayers, to fulfill the promise of our State’s Constitution: “…a system of free common schools wherein all the children of this state may be educated.”

Read the full paper below.

ECB_2026-27_Finance_Paper_FINAL.pdf

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