Senator Hinchey Announces Record Education Funding for Greene County, Makes Universal Pre-K a Reality Across all Local Schools

ALBANY, NY – Senator Michelle Hinchey today announced that the final enacted State Budget for FY’23 includes a $1.3 million increase in Foundation Aid for Greene County schools and funding to create 40 new pre-kindergarten seats, which builds on last year’s historic universal pre-K (UPK) investments and ensures that every school district in Greene now has access to state funding to create full-day four-year-old pre-K programs.

Last year, five Greene County school districts received first-time UPK funding, and this year Senator Hinchey secured funding to make the program available at Windham-Ashland-Jewett, which has never received state funding for pre-K prior to this year.

Senator Michelle Hinchey said, “When we invest in education, we are propelling our kids toward a lifelong path to success and supporting working families in the process. That’s the progress I fought for and delivered this year on behalf of our Greene County schools, which will see a historic increase in Foundation Aid and funding to create 40 new pre-K seats, officially making it possible for every district in Greene to offer this critical early learning program. We’ll continue to expand on this success until every student and every family has access to full-day four-year old pre-K.”

The FY 2023 Budget continues the state’s commitment to fully phase in Foundation Aid funding by the 2023-2024 school year, fulfilling a landmark court order in 2006 that said the state wasn’t meeting its obligation in financing schools. Greene County will receive over $42 million in Foundation Aid, a 3.2% increase over last year.

The breakdown Foundation Aid funding for Greene County is below.

• Cairo-Durham: $11,353,184 (3.0% increase)
• Catskill: $11,505,902 (3.0% increase)
• Coxsackie-Athens: $7,465,551 (3.0% increase)
• Greenville: $8,890,258 (4.1% increase)
• Hunter-Tannersville: $1,769,586 (3.0% increase)
• Windham-Ashland-Jewett: $1,138,726 (3.0% increase)

This year, Senator Hinchey secured funding to create 20 pre-K seats in the Windham-Ashland-Jewett Central School District and 20 pre-K seats in the Coxsackie-Athens Central School District and over two years has delivered funding to create 145 new full-day pre-K seats in Greene County.

The breakdown of pre-K funding for Greene County is below

• Cairo-Durham: $257,344
• Catskill: $318,673
• Coxsackie-Athens: $589,248
• Greenville: $282,218
• Hunter-Tannersville: $45,900
• Windham-Ashland-Jewett: $108,000

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