Long Island school budgets don't reflect enrollment reality

Long Island's annual ritual of voting for or against school district budgets takes place Tuesday, and many residents again find themselves with the Hobson's choice of supporting a budget that will raise taxes or voting it down and risking the quality of education, not to mention their home values. 

As school enrollment declines, inflation rises and the number of live births dips, residents wonder why their school taxes continue to go up. If there are fewer kids in school, can't the district lower taxes?

Many do, but it's not simple or easy.

Newsday's editorial board crunched some student enrollment data and found that Suffolk County schools experienced a 9.3% decline in enrollment from 2016-2025 while Nassau schools experienced a 2.6% dip over the same time. Further analysis found that the population of school-aged children 19 and under declined by 4% in Suffolk and 0.4% in Nassau from 2016-2024.

Taxpayer advocates want schools to cut staff to reduce taxes since there are fewer kids in a classroom. Nearly three dozen school districts on Long Island already are balancing their budget by trimming staff. A Newsday news analysis of proposed budgets for the 2026-27 school year found that a third of those budgets call for reductions in staff or programs despite average spending in the Island's 124 school districts rising 3.26%. That's a clear indicator that districts are adjusting to economic realities and the rising Consumer Price Index.

Long Island school districts need more help from Albany to be better able to accurately forecast expenses when making budgets, whether that means more financial aid, an improved state aid formula, a reduction in mandates that don’t come with funding, or all of the above.

34 BUDGETS BELOW CAP

Bob Vecchio, executive director of the Nassau-Suffolk School Boards Association, told Newsday's editorial board that 34 Long Island school districts proposed budgets this year that are below the state tax cap. Seven are piercing the cap and the remainder had increases exactly at the cap.

While there is no immediate correlation between enrollment and costs, education officials say the twain does eventually meet. "School districts, over time, have accounted for enrollment declines through attrition and ... accounted for enrollment shifts through responsible fiduciary management," Vecchio said.

School budgets are more complex with different demands than they were 20 years ago. Added expenses for security personnel, mental health professionals and cybersecurity expenses weren't a consideration until after 9/11 and then again in the wake of COVID-19.

Since the vast majority — in many cases, 75% or more — of a school district's budget pays for salaries and benefits and other contractual obligations, there's little room for a district to cut in a single-year budget. Money for contractually obligated positions is allocated before the start of the fiscal year. The process of creating a budget incorporates factors beyond a municipality's control, like rising energy prices and health insurance premiums.

A local business facing a budget crunch can cut costs; a family feeling a money squeeze can postpone a vacation. For a school district operating under state laws limiting how much it can keep in reserve funds and signing yearslong contracts, large budget adjustments can't be made in a day. Well-done planning requires forecasting future economic factors that may influence budget spending and state aid.

Politics, as always, plays a part in school district budget votes as state elected officials talk about the state aid formula and how schools need to do more with less. Candidates for boards of education, in appeals to voters, get political by proposing to cut taxes or increase educational programs. But this year got even more political, and just days before Election Day, when Gov. Kathy Hochul said schools should give money back to taxpayers.

On a radio show appearance on Long Island Wednesday, Hochul said that Long Island school districts are "overtaxing because they already have reserves …," not addressing that the 4% cap on unrestricted reserve funds is far lower than other municipal layers of government. She added that "money should be returned to local residents who're paying too much in property taxes."

Her comments were the type of policy-adjusting claim that should be made months before school budgets are crafted, not days before residents vote on finalized plans.

EXPECTED TIER 6 COSTS

Revisions to the state's Tier 6 pension system, which are being negotiated during this year's budget wheeling and dealing in Albany and expected to cost at least $500 million, will add even more costs to future school budgets.

A school exists to educate a community's children. Education is a human services industry. Schools can more easily cut transportation costs, extracurricular programs and nonmandated classes, but that leads to degrading the quality of education that Long Islanders expect — and pay for.

Long Island has an incredibly high cost of living, in part because of property taxes, but we can't be shortsighted and jeopardize quality education or home values by undercutting our schools. Taxpayers shouldn't feel forced to vote for higher school taxes to preserve their home values.

And that's why districts must continue to forecast enrollment trends and rising costs when crafting budgets with minimal reserves and without any source of revenue generation. And why Albany must do more to offset school budget expenses.

Most school districts post information online so voters can be informed before heading to the polls. If you are displeased with the choices, make a point to get involved in next year's budget cycle by volunteering on your school board's budget advisory committee or even running for a seat on the board of education.

Long Islanders covet local control, especially of their schools. But the state limits how schools can pay for the right of local control through the 2% tax cap and 4% cap on unrestricted reserves. That means residents don't really have full control of their schools' finances, unless 60% of the voters approve going over the cap.

The editorial board remains supportive of the tax cap as a proven way to force districts to limit spending beyond their means, as they frequently did in the years before the tax cap was implemented in the 2012-13 school year.

After Tuesday's votes, educational leaders must once more pressure Albany to fix the way it funds schools. An improved process will boost school districts' chances of surviving economic headwinds beyond their control.