It cannot be overstated how crucial the New York State Foundation Aid Formula is for funding public schools across New York City. The formula is the financial framework reflecting the commitment to equitable educational opportunities for all students. Established as part of a larger effort to address the constitutional mandate for a sound basic education, this formula aims to allocate resources based on student needs. This approach is meant to ensure that schools with higher concentrations of children with greater needs have the ability to provide a quality education and as a result, the formula is instrumental in addressing longstanding inequalities in funding that have historically disadvantaged urban schools.
The largest share of state aid comes to New York City public schools in the form of foundation aid. For fiscal year 2025, foundation aid is predicted to be more than $9.9 billion dollars equal to over 73% of total state aid ($13.5 billion) coming to New York City Public Schools. Foundation aid stands in contrast to all other education aid (general and restricted) from New York state because it’s the lion’s share (80%) of all general support aids which were roughly $11.2 billion as of May 2024. However, foundation aid is not based on approved operating expenditures like other general support aids such as transportation, building, career education, and computer administration aid. Foundation aid is also very unlike restricted categorical aids. Categorical aids have more prescriptive funding requirements designed to ensure funds are spent for specific purposes, such as prekindergarten, special education, or school lunch.
Implementation of the Foundation Aid Formula has impacted funding levels and provided a more needs-based approach to financial support for schools. This shift has allowed for more strategic investments in educational resources, such as teacher salaries. Teachers and other pedagogues are the most important inputs that directly affect the academic results we see for our children. In fact, roughly half of the general education instructional section of the budget for this fiscal year 2025 ($8.8 billion) is powered by state funds equal to $4.3 billion. This portion of the budget will support salaries for over 59,000 pedagogues including teachers.
Over the past 25 years, the landscape of teacher salaries in New York City has undergone significant changes. In the early 2000s, the median salary for NYC teachers was relatively modest at $51,020 when compared to today’s standards. Teacher salaries were subject to incremental increases, that may not have kept pace with the high cost of living in the city. The mid-2000s to early 2010s saw some improvements, largely driven by collective bargaining agreements and city-wide efforts to retain and attract high-quality educators. Presently, teacher salaries in New York City have seen more substantial growth. Larger salary increases have occurred partly thanks to the influx of additional funding resulting from the state’s realization of its commitment to fully fund the Foundation Aid Formula. Today starting teacher salaries are scaled at more than $64,000 with starting salaries that will increase to more than $71,000 by 2026.
Going forward, the use of robust funding mechanisms that properly adjust to local economic realities is essential to fostering an equitable and high-quality education system in New York City. Built-in formulaic adjustments will permit proper aid levels to be given in timely fashion. Ongoing alignment of teacher salaries with the growing demands of the profession will allow our public schools to address the diverse needs of our students, enhance the overall effectiveness of public schools, and continue to strive to become a model for effective urban public education.
