Governor Cuomo Releases 2013-2014 Executive Budget

In his budget release, Gov. Andrew Cuomo proposed to increase school aid by 3 percent and allocate additional resources to implement the initiatives he presented in his State of the State address. The total amount pledged to education is about $21.1 billion, up $889 million, or 4.4 percent, from this year.

Some preliminary highlights:

New Education Initiatives

• Full-Day Pre-kindergarten Program ($25 million). The Executive Budget will provide support for a full-day pre-kindergarten program targeted toward higher need students in lower wealth school districts via a competitive process.

• Extended Learning Time ($20 million). In order to provide increased learning opportunities, funding will be prioritized to support high-quality extended school day or extended school year programs, with academically enriched programming. Schools that apply to participate in the program must agree to expand learning time by 25 percent. The grant will cover the full cost of expanding learning time for students.

• Community Schools ($15 million). The Executive Budget will support an innovative program designed to transform schools into community hubs. The community schools will integrate social, health and other services, as well as after-school programming to support students and their families.

• Maintain current funding for Child Care Subsidies

• Raise the minimum wage from $7.25/hour to $8.75/hour.

• Reform Early Intervention Program. The Executive Budget recommends a series of program modifications to expand insurance coverage and streamline eligibility determinations, without impacting services, that provide significant fiscal and administrative mandate relief to counties and generate cumulative local savings totaling more than $60 million over five years.

Preschool Special Education

• Conduct a Large-Scale Audit of Preschool Special Education Providers. The State will select a vendor through a competitive process to audit providers and collect extensive provider data to develop a comprehensive database in order to improve oversight.

• Build Counties’ Capacity to Monitor Providers. The Executive Budget will build county capacity to oversee Preschool Special Education providers through the provision of $1 million in targeted grants to counties and through the development of a fiscal integrity tool to better detect fraud and abuse.

• Empower New York City. Uniquely situated as both the county and the school district, New York City would be authorized to implement a process to select providers for Preschool Special Education services, and to set provider rates within certain State parameters.

Stay tuned for more updates as we continue comb through the details.

Sincerely,

Jessica

Jessica Klos Shapiro

Policy Associate

(518) 690-4217 ex. 32