Briarcliff Board of Ed Calls for an End to the GEA

The Briarcliff Manor Board of Education has unanimously passed a resolution calling on lawmakers to end the annual Gap Elimination Adjustment (GEA) and restore the much needed school aid that has been taken away from the Briarcliff Manor school district and other New York State school districts since the law’s inception four years ago.

Briarcliff joins the campaign spearheaded by the Westchester Putnam School Boards Association (WPSBA) to restore a loss of more than half a billion dollars in state aid to school districts in the region due to the GEA. WPSBA has made the elimination of the GEA one of its highest priorities for the 2013-2014 school year. It is working to convince legislators that the GEA should be eliminated, thereby helping school districts in a time of great financial constriction and ever increasing mandated services.

The reduction in school districts’ allocation of state aid, now known as the GEA, is a formula in the state budget that reduces the amount of state aid each school district is entitled to receive. It was introduced in the 2009-2010 school year to partially offset the state’s own $10 billion budget deficit. Over the past four years, the GEA has negatively impacted school districts statewide, reducing state aid by approximately $8.9  billion.  Briarcliff Manor alone has lost over $2.3 million in school aid since the GEA began, and is expected to lose over a half million dollars for the next school year.

The GEA, along with state aid reductions, insufficient mandate relief and the enactment of the property tax levy cap, has created irreversible financial consequences for schools within Westchester and Putnam counties, along with sister regions in Dutchess and Rockland. “By passing our GEA resolution, our Board is joining WPSBA and other school districts that have passed similar resolutions to advocate for proper school funding. Local taxpayers should not have to bear the burden of the state government’s attempt to fix its own deficit by backing out of its financial obligation to its schoolchildren,” said Briarcliff Board of Education President Jennifer Rosen.

RESOLUTION

Whereas,

The NYS Deficit Reduction Assessment was originally instituted (in 2009) to reduce the State’s $11 Billion deficit, and

Whereas,

For the past three years this reduction has gone under the name Gap Elimination Adjustment (GEA) and has lowered state aid in our area by 16% on average by taking $586 Million of owed State Aid education monies and re-allocating it to other areas of the State Budget, and

Whereas,

This State strategy to “seize” education dollars has happened at the same time that State-imposed financial demands on our school district have continued to grow, common core standards and new high-stakes assessments have been implemented, and the local tax levy has been capped, despite minimal State mandate relief and

Whereas,

The NY State Budget now projects a $2.2 Billion surplus while schools across the state have already cut 10,000 teachers in addition to other personnel, programs & services which support our students,

Therefore, Be it Resolved that,

We the People demand an end to this grievous wrong by eliminating the GEA deduction from the final State Aid calculation for every school district in NYS. The NYS constitutional right of our children to a “sound basic education” has been seriously compromised for too long. Eliminate the GEA and Restore our School Aid.