Hi John,

Next week’s Foundation Aid hearing will be held on Tuesday, July 30, at Weldon E. Howitt Middle School in Farmingdale. We encourage you to participate and share your testimony to ensure your voice is heard in this important process.

If you plan to attend in-person, you must submit a speaker registration form in advance. You can also submit testimony in writing, which can be prepared in as few as ten minutes using our easy-to-follow testimony guide (available in English and Spanish). The deadline for submitting written testimony is September 6. If you cannot attend a hearing in-person, each of the upcoming hearings will be livestreamed, allowing you to participate virtually. Resources to help you craft your testimony and inform yourself on more of the details of this process are available on our website.

The Rockefeller Institute is collecting feedback to make nonbinding recommendations on potential revisions to the Foundation Aid formula. Your input will inform their final report, which will likely inform Governor Hochul’s education budget proposal for the next fiscal year. The Governor has tasked the Rockefeller Institute with evaluating whether the formula is “fiscally sustainable,” potentially prioritizing budgetary concerns over the constitutional obligation to provide every student with a sound basic education.

For all hearings going forward, stakeholder testimony begins at 2pm, and public comment for registered speakers starts at 5:30pm. Upcoming hearing dates and locations are as follows (click through the hyperlinks for the livestreams):

• July 30: Farmingdale, Long Island (Weldon E. Howitt Middle School)

• August 8: Laurens, Central NY (Laurens Central School)

• August 14: Guilderland, Capital Region (Guilderland High School)

Sharing your personal story can significantly impact the future of our kids and public schools. We hope you can testify, whether in person or online, to advocate for justice and equity in this critical process.

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