Schumer says upstate schools are getting shortchanged

NEW YORK – Just days after the New York state budget was approved by lawmakers, one legislator says the administration is “shortchanging upstate schools by more than $170 million.”

U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer said Wednesday that with state education funding already “mired in doubt,” and property taxes remaining high, the federal government “must keep its promise to fund upstate schools.”

When the No Child Left Behind Act was originally passed by Congress, the bill included specific funding authorizations for Title I grants for every year of the bill. Schumer says funding has never been adequate. He says the state’s education department recently lost 40 cents per every dollar in Title I funding.

Schumer states that the federal administration’s 2008 budget levels for the program are only $13.9 billion, well below the levels included in the original legislation, which called for an estimated $25 billion in Title I grants.

“This means the program would be under funded by $11.1 billion. Title I grants provide critical funding to local educational agencies to help raise student achievement in disadvantaged communities,” the senator said. “The money is also meant to help schools meet new accountability measures geared toward improving student performance, such as reading and math tests.”