In 2002-03, the Legislature disbursed $12.3 billion from the
General Fund for public education statewide. This represented
almost 31 percent of all General Fund disbursements for the fiscal
year. Moreover, the State's contribution to the New York City
school system has markedly increased over the past several
years, from $3.1 billion in fiscal year 1993-94 to $4.5 billion in
fiscal year 1999-00 to more than $5 billion in fiscal year 2002-03.
As the State's contributions have increased, the City has not kept
pace. As a result, from fiscal year 1994-95 to fiscal year 1999-00,
the State's share of the City's combined State and local education
funding increased from 47 percent to 51 percent (approximately
10 percent of the City's education budget consists of federal
funds.) Concomitantly, the City's share decreased from 53
percent in 1995-1996 to 49 percent in 1999- 2000.
In 1999-2000, the school year during which the trial in this case
ended, the Board of Education received more than $10.4 billion
from all sources to operate New York City's public schools,
amounting to $9,500 per pupil. Between 1997, when the Board's
budget was $8.1 billion, and 2000, pupil spending increased by
20 percent even after adjusting for inflation. The City reports its
current school year overall budget to have risen to $12.4 billion,
or $11,300 per enrolled student. In addition to its operating
budget, the Board's capital plan at the time of trial provided over
$7 billion in funding for new school facilities and repairs to
existing facilities.
In short, very substantial sums are spent on New York City's
public schools. If it were counted as a state, New York City would
rank fifth in per-pupil expenditures; it would rank ninth if
spending were adjusted for cost-of-living differences. Again, the
State contributes about half of these very substantial sums.
The plaintiffs originally complained that New York City's public
schools were necessarily underfunded by the State because they
enrolled 37 percent of the State's public school population but
received slightly less than 35 percent of the total State aid
distributed. Addressing this point in CFE I, Judge Simons in his
dissent pointed out that "[t]here is no constitutional requirement
* * * that the State maintain exact parity in the financial aid
distributed to the several thousand school districts" ( CFE I, 86
NY2d at 340). In any event, for the 2002-2003 school year, the
City enrolled 37 percent of the State's public school population
and was allocated 37 percent of the combined major aid enacted
( see New York State Division of the Budget, Education Unit,
Description of 2002-03 New York State School Aid Programs, p
35, Table II-E).
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