How much does New York State owe your child’s school?

Campaign for Fiscal Equity puts out itemized list

February 28, 2018 By Paula Katinas Brooklyn Daily Eagle

A parent volunteer distributes informational material to a subway rider entering the R train station at a station entrance on 85th Street and Fourth Avenue in Bay Ridge. Photo courtesy of Courtney Scott

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A landmark lawsuit that parents of New York City school children won to force the state government to distribute education funds in a more equitable manner has still hasn’t resulted in a fair and balanced system, according to advocates, who are spreading the word about the situation on a school-by-school basis.

Campaign for Fiscal Equity, a nonprofit group of parents and advocates that filed the successful lawsuit against New York State and won in 2003, has put out a list of what each of New York’s City’s public schools is still owed.

Campaign for Fiscal Equity, which filed the lawsuit in the late 1990s, charged that New York City was being shortchanged when it came to the distribution of state education funds. The New York State Court of Appeals ruled in favor of Campaign for Fiscal Equity and ordered the state to rectify the financial disparity.

But more than a decade later, the situation has not been fully resolved, according to leaders of Campaign for Fiscal Equity.

On Monday, Bay Ridge parents joined members of another advocacy group, Alliance for Quality Education, outside local subway stations to distribute informational flyers to riders.

The volunteers stood outside the 86th Street, 77th Street and Bay Ridge Ave subway stations on the R line. “Participants distributed a list of the amounts owed to the schools of Senate District 22 as a result of the Campaign for Fiscal Equity v. State of New York lawsuit,” one parent, Courtney Scott, told the Brooklyn Eagle in an email.

Scott said that in New York State Senate District 22, which includes Bay Ridge, Dyker Heights, Bensonhurst, Gravesend, Gerritsen Beach and Marine Park, the schools are owed more than $60 million.

“Unfortunately, our NYS Legislature has failed to properly fund our schools as determined by the outcome of that lawsuit,” Scott said.

Parents are putting pressure on the Republican-led state Senate to fix the funding mess.