State should develop more equitable way to distribute aid

Schools in New York are funded primarily by a combination of state aid and local school taxes (3 percent of our budget revenue comes from other funding sources).

The percentage of state aid for each school district varies. For our 2006-2007 school budget, state aid provided 27 percent of the revenue needed to support our budget, and 70 percent was provided by our local school taxes. Therefore, our district had to generate the “lion's share” of the revenue needed to provide what is necessary to educate all the students in our district.

The current state aid formula is extremely complicated and incorporates numerous factors in determining state aid. One major factor that determines state aid is based on property values and wealth ratios. For our district, these factors reduce the support of state tax dollars toward our school budget.