COVID-19 and the Squeeze on State Education Budgets: Equity Implications for New York State. Making Research Relevant

With the economic halt precipitated by the COVID-19 virus, states are starting to prepare for and beginning to address the budgetary squeeze that is sure to come absent of massive federal stimulus dollars. At the end of March, New York State was the first state to come out with a post-COVID-19 state budget (the Legislative Budget). In early April, Governor Cuomo signed the Legislative Budget into law to make it the Enacted Budget. Because of the early release of the budget, the author used New York's Enacted Budget as one example of how states are cutting education budgets as a result of COVID-19. In January, New York State released its Executive Budget prior to any understanding of how devastating COVID-19 would be. In this report, the author compares district-by-district estimates of state aid per pupil under the Executive and Enacted Budgets to understand the impacts of COVID-19 across districts in relation to the level of economic disadvantage of students served and the racial composition of students in districts. Next, longitudinal analysis is conducted looking at education revenue per pupil over time in New York State by district poverty rates to understand what might occur during the current budgetary crisis if the state enacts cuts similarly to those that occurred during the Great Recession.