Feds boost LI school aid, but Albany may cut back more

Long Island school districts, aided by a last-minute infusion of federal funds intended to help save teachers' jobs, will still find themselves at least $80 million short of last year's state aid figure - a big drop, but not nearly as large as originally feared.

Total aid of $2.32 billion is 3.4 percent less than last year's total.

And there likely is another cut of as much as $20 million on the way.

Those developments are revealed in new school-aid figures posted by the state late Tuesday for all 124 districts on the Island, as well as others across the state. The bottom line is that the region, on balance, seems poised to lose roughly $100 million in state aid, rather than the $172.6 million proposed last January by Gov. David A. Paterson.

In all, 120 districts will receive less aid.

For some local school administrators, the news was happy enough - given the troubled economic climate.

"The money we're going to get from the federal government is going to help Long Island save jobs," said Bill Johnson, superintendent of Rockville Centre schools and former president of a state superintendents' group.

Rockville Centre is due to get $467,862 in federal jobs money, bringing its total aid package to $7.26 million. That's down 6.9 percent from last year, not counting the expected state deduction that could amount roughly to another $70,000.

Reaction was equally enthusiastic in Roosevelt, one of only four Island districts that appear to be getting a net aid increase. Roosevelt stands to gain at least $200,000, once the anticipated state deduction is factored in. Schools Chief Robert-Wayne Harris said he was "excited" by the prospect, though the district is still checking to make sure figures hold up.

Earlier this month, Long Island's congressional Democrats had announced that extra federal jobs money for schools was on the way. But exact figures were not known until Tuesday. The same day, U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan announced that New York State also had won nearly $700 million in "Race to the Top" money for school improvement - about $15.5 million of which is due for distribution on the Island over the next four years. That money is not included in the figures posted Tuesday.

Despite the upbeat announcements, many local school leaders voiced frustration Wednesday over the state's warning that it will, in all likelihood, subtract the equivalent of about 1 percent of aid that Paterson had originally proposed in January. That amount could be as much as $20 million.

"Isn't that something?" said Roberta Gerold, the superintendent in Middle Country. "We're living under that sword again."

Erik Kriss, a spokesman for the governor's budget office, said the expected deductions - part of an anticipated across-the-board state spending reduction - are required to cover a $280 million shortfall in hoped-for federal Medicaid money. "It has to be that way, because that was the mechanism that we set up with the Legislature to make sure the budget was balanced," he said.