The Syracuse City School District is currently being affected by a $63 million budget gap in the 2015-16 school year.

New York state owes Syracuse City School District more than $63 million in unpaid funding, according to Syracuse Public Media.

The issue dates back to 2007 when a lawsuit was brought against the state of New York by the “Campaign for Fiscal Education.” The campaign came alongside a report by the Alliance for Quality Education that showed a deficit of more than $4.9 billion to the state overall, according to the Alliance for Quality Education report . 

The schools in the Syracuse City School District have about $11,000 less funding for each student than wealthier schools in the state, according to a WSKG news article.

Syracuse City Schools Superintendent Sharon Contreras said in the article that each year, teachers have been laid off while classrooms continue to grow.

Yilin Hou, a public administration and international affairs professor at Syracuse University, said legislators have over-promised the amount of money that can be allotted to the state, which has created an unsustainable climate in New York for many years, not just recently.

He added that because every district has a gap, there is a structurally imbalanced aid formula that disadvantages every district, not just one in particular. The issue, he said, is that legislators are not only over-promising, but choosing between hundreds of options to fund, and the priority is not on education.

The Gap Elimination Adjustment (GEA) has created a widening gap between Syracuse and the wealthier school districts in New York, even though was implemented in the 2010-11 school year during the recession in order to alleviate the hole in the New York state budget, according to New York State United Teachers, a teachers’ union in the state.

In order to help close the gap, according to Syracuse.com, the GEA makes cuts around the state. These cuts include education.

John Dau, a Class of 2011 alumnus of Syracuse University, author and education activist, said that education plays a vital role in the community, and added that without the Syracuse City School District, he would not be where he is today.

Dau said the budget gap has a huge impact on the district’s ability to help impoverished students, immigrants and refugees. This funding, he said, helps these students become well-rounded as well as help students catch up to their peers.

New York state Gov. Andrew Cuomo has pledged to return the money from these cuts to the school districts, but has yet to do so, Syracuse Mayor Stephanie Miner said in an Syracuse.com article. Though budgets have been created to restore the money, cuts have been made in multiple years since then, which haven’t been restored, Miner said. 

Education advocates and lawmakers are calling for a $1.9 billion increase in order to keep schools from continuous program cutting, according to The Auburn Citizen.

The Alliance for Quality Education website, which breaks down the release of Cuomo’s executive budget from 2014, showed that there will be a $608 million increase to the state of New York’s education budget this year.

This contrasts to the $1.9 billion increase in the budget that education advocates and lawmakers are calling for, according to the Alliance for Quality Education website. That will keep schools from cutting programs, increasing class sizes and providing additional classroom services to students, according to the Alliance for Quality Education.

Published on March 2, 2016 at 12:09 am

Contact Tara: trtolton@syr.edu