TUXEDO – Senator James Skoufis (D, Cornwall) and Assemblyman Karl Brabenec (R, Deerpark) visited Tuxedo to assure school Superintendent Jeff White, students, teachers and other administrators of their support for the district.
The legislators spoke in front of George Baker High School on Wednesday, with students seated on the steps behind them.
They delivered good and bad news for the Tuxedo Union Free School District.
In delivering the good news, the Democratic senator and Republican assemblyman said that a bipartisan effort defeated New York Governor Kathy Hochul’s budget proposal to cut existing foundation aid, the main source of funding for the state’s public schools. The proposal would’ve meant a 40 percent cut in state aid in 2024-25 for the Tuxedo school district. White added that Hochul’s multi-year proposal called for a 60 percent cut in 2025-26 and a 70 percent cut in 2026-27.
Brabenec had mixed feelings about the education funding.
“A few weeks ago, we fought to get a lot of the cuts that were proposed by the governor restored into the budget. That was done in the final budget, so I am happy about that,” he said. “The things that prompted me to vote no on this portion of the budget was there were many school districts in my assembly district that did not receive an increase, but actually stayed flat as zero, which could be detrimental.”
Skoufis said one of the “most meaningful wins in the budget adopted was defeat, reject, this proposal from the governor that sought to cut state aid to more than half of the state’s over 700 school districts, including in Tuxedo,” he said.
But Skoufis said the governor is unilaterally to blame for the fact that we are not completing the phase-in of universal pre-K education, something Brabenec also spoke out against.”
