Assemblyman Ken Blankenbush met with Dr. John B. King, Commissioner of Education, yesterday at a meeting in Utica organized by Senator Joe Griffo to express his concerns with the current school aid formula. The Assemblyman was joined by superintendents and school administrators from St. Lawrence, Lewis and Oneida counties.

“For the last several months, I’ve been hearing from school administrators in my district about how devastating this year’s school aid cuts were to their curriculums and the education of their students. It’s become increasingly more obvious that rural, low-wealth schools that are unable to raise significant funds from property taxes were unfairly targeted by the cuts because of their heavy reliance on school aid,” Assemblyman Blankenbush said. “I’ve written the Governor and the Commissioner about the need for revisions to the school aid formula, and this meeting was an opportunity to reiterate our concerns in person.”

Katie Compos, a representative from the Governor’s office, joined the meeting via conference call and Anthony Bottar, a member of the Board of Regents from Central New York, also was in attendance. The Board of Regents recently voted to recommend to the Governor a change to the school aid formula that would provide a more fair distribution of aid to rural schools.

“I feel that both the Commissioner and the Governor’s representative were receptive to our concerns and recommendations. I am optimistic that this year’s budget will be fairer to our local schools,” the assemblyman added.

Following the meeting, the assemblyman talked to the Commissioner about his concerns with a new mandate that requires all students, even special education students, to obtain a Regents diploma. The Commissioner acknowledged his concerns and said that he has been hearing about this issue all over the state.

“I will continue pushing the Board of Regents and the Department of Education to rescind this mandate. It simply does not make any sense that a special education student who is just learning important life skills should have to spend time taking a Regents test, which he or she will never pass. Moreover, it’s unfair to these students to require them to be in school, yet give them no chance to obtain any kind of a diploma,” Assemblyman Blankenbush said.