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STATE FUNDING EQUITY

Summer 1998 (v3#1)
CFE Launches Statewide Dialogue on School Funding Reform

Across New York State, people are talking about school funding reform. With the help of many statewide and local organizations, the Campaign for Fiscal Equity, Inc. has expanded its public engagement process statewide in order to involve thousands of New Yorkers in crafting a proposal to reform the way the state funds its schools. Elements of this proposal will be presented to the Court of Appeals when CFE v. State, a constitutional challenge to New York’s education finance system, goes to trial later this year.

The statewide campaign began in November with local educational forums in rural, urban and suburban communities. These ten forums were co-sponsored by CFE’s partners in the Equity Reform Project: the Educational Priorities Panel (EPP), the League of Women Voters of New York State, the New York Urban League and the State Communities Aid Association.

Most of the forums followed a similar format, beginning with an excerpt from EPP’s video "Listen to the Children." Forum participants then took part in an interactive "school funding game," using props and state funding charts to see firsthand the inequities caused by the current state aid system. A panel of speakers then presented their positions on school funding reform. In addition to representatives of CFE and the League of Women Voters, other panelists included a wide range of citizens, from legislative leaders and academics to local business people and members of local advocacy groups.

Following the presentations, the forums were opened up for public discussion. Participants offered reactions to CFE’s reform positions and made their voices heard on a wide range of related topics, including tax policies and local control. While many were understandably concerned about their property taxes and maintaining local control, most saw the need to look beyond their own pocketbooks and take statewide responsibility for the education of New York’s children. This input is helping CFE shape its definition of a "sound basic education," which the Court of Appeals ruled the state is required to offer to all its children.

Regional forums build momentum
The local forums set the stage for the second phase of CFE’s statewide public engagement process, six regional forums held in January and February. These events followed a format similar to the one CFE used successfully in its three New York City conferences last year. First, participants were briefed on the state education finance system, CFE v. State, and the reform positions of CFE and a number of other statewide organizations. They then broke into small groups, where they discussed a set of "common principles" pulled from these reform positions and a number of funding options provided by CFE.

CFE was pleased with the frank and open nature of the forum discussions. "The extent to which participants from diverse backgrounds, from affluent districts and poor districts, were able to sit together and hammer out common positions was often startling," said Michael Rebell, CFE’s executive director. "It proves that public engagement really works."

The regional forums were conducted in cooperation with the New York State School Boards Association and a number of regional school boards associations. As part of its continuing efforts to build a statewide coalition, CFE also enlisted a number of additional co-sponsors, including the members of the Equity Reform Project, the Conference of Big Five School Districts, the New York State PTAs, the New York Civil Liberties Union, Reform Educational Financing Inequities Today and local organizations.

CFE’s statewide public engagement process has generated intense media interest. Newspapers from Buffalo to New Paltz covered the forums, and many provided detailed discussions of CFE’s litigation and the gross funding inequities found in every region of the state. A number of editorial boards also voiced their support for fiscal equity reform and the public engagement process. The Plattsburgh Press-Republican urged readers to become involved in what it called an "historic effort," while the Gannett Newspapers wrote an impassioned editorial which concluded: "[I]t’s high time the fiscal inequities of the education system were addressed. And the fact that the public isn’t being bypassed is heartening." TV and radio stations aired interviews and forum coverage, while a number of PBS and local cable networks aired the forums in their entirety.

Culminating events
The first year of this statewide process concluded with an Albany Summit on April 23. Delegates from each of the regional forums joined representatives of CFE’s New York City constituency and other statewide organizations for updates and in-depth discussion groups. The goal was to bring together a diverse and representative group of stakeholders from every part of the state to discuss and begin to reach concensus around "fair funding principles."

Following the Albany Summit, CFE returned to its New York City constituents for a final conference on May 20. After considering the results of the upstate meetings, City participants attempted to hammer out some of the implementation details of CFE’s draft reform proposal. Between these two culminating events, CFE attempted to overcome the traditional upstate-downstate conflicts and forge a strong statewide coalition behind real education finance reform.

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