Brentwood school trustees take funding fight to federal government
Robert Feliciano, president of the Brentwood school board, speaks at a meeting on March 15. Credit: Raychel Brightman
The Brentwood Union Free School District Board of Education, after years of lobbying the state for more equitable school funding, is taking its case to the federal government.
“You can’t redo third grade. You can’t re-offer what was lost in terms of opportunities and the resources,” board President Robert Feliciano said of the high-poverty district, which has more than 19,000 students and has seen an influx of English language learners in recent years. “I’m not looking to get them anything else than what we are offering in all of our districts right across the state.”
The board March 15 approved a resolution authorizing its attorneys to file a complaint asking the U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights to investigate its claims, naming the state, the legislature, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and state education department.
The Garden City law firm, Bond, Schoeneck & King, has been directed to gather information to show that the state’s failure to fully fund its school-aid formula has resulted in “gross inequity” for students in the mostly minority district, violating the Civil Rights Act, according to the board resolution. The firm, which filed a similar complaint for the upstate-Middletown school district in 2013, plans to have the Brentwood complaint ready by the end of the school year, the firm said.
“They are engaging in racial discrimination based on the inequitable distribution of financial aid through the Foundation Aid formula,” said Kate Reid, an attorney from the firm.
The Foundation Aid formula distributes aid to districts based on a number of factors including student need, regional cost differences and local district fiscal capacity. It was put in place after the state’s highest court in 2006 ruled that the state was underfunding schools and not meeting its constitutional burden to provide all children with a “sound basic education.”
That case focused on New York City schools, but lawmakers later applied the formula to all districts. Its planned phase-in, however, was put on hold in 2009-10 due to the 2007-09 recession, and has yet to be fully implemented.
According to state education leaders, fully running the formula would drive an additional $4.2 billion to school districts statewide.
Brentwood schools this school year received $194 million in school aid, but district officials say they would have received $130 million more if the formula were fully funded.
“They’re owed the most out of any district on Long Island,” said Rick Timbs, executive director of the Statewide School Finance Consortium.
The board, which goes up to Albany every year to lobby for funding, this year canceled its trip to focus instead on taking legal action, Feliciano said.
“We have made our way through the financial crisis that was looming in this country, the Great Recession, and at this point there are no other excuses.”
The office of state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman referred comment to the governor’s office and state Education Department. A department spokeswoman said they do not comment on litigation or potential litigation.
Morris Peters, a spokesman for the state Division of Budget, said Brentwood’s state aid has increased 32 percent since 2011-12; for the coming year, the district’s proposed allocation tops $200 million.
With Rachelle Blidner
