CFE Attacks Senate's Education Proposal

New York, NY —

The Campaign for Fiscal Equity, which won a lawsuit against the state on equal funding for schools, is attacking the State Senate’s proposal that they say drives money away from needy schools to wealthy districts. Karen DeWitt reports from Albany.

REPORTER: The Senate plan adds one point two billion dollars in school funds on top of the large increase proposed from governor Spitzer. But Billy Easton with Alliance for Quality Education says the extra money obscures a key change, the senate would reconfigured the formula to distribute school aid, so that wealthy districts get a larger slice of the pie under the distribution formula and poorer schools get less.

EASTON: The Senate plan essentially has the impact of being a school aid transfer program that transfers future aid increases away from poor districts to wealthy districts.

REPORTER: The Senate Republicans see it differently, saying that people in wealthier districts on Long Island also pay far higher than average school property taxes and deserve some relief.