Some NY Educators Want to Fix 'Foundation Aid', While Others Tell State to Pay Up First [LoHud]

"We're looking for the state to hit the reset button, to meet its obligation," Nanuet Superintendent Kevin McCahill said. "Politicians may struggle to claw back money from communities that don't need it as much, which may be part of a reset. But that's democracy."

The state Senate may have started such a reset Wednesday. The Senate's education and budget/revenues committees held a roundtable review of the foundation aid formula, with dozens of invited experts, at Yonkers Riverfront Library, the first of five such talks across the state. The goal is to update the formula, if not rewrite it, but the process is bound to be politically charged.

Mayer is working with Harlem Sen. Brian Benjamin, chair of the Senate Committee on Budget and Revenues, to figure out a way to more equitably fund New York's mix of big city school systems, rural upstate districts and rapidly changing suburban districts.