After an intense and well-organized grassroots campaign spearheaded by TEACH NYS in coordination with the Sephardic Community Federation (SCF) and joined by Agudath Israel, the UJO of Williamsburg, the Orthodox Union and Yeshiva University, Governor Paterson and Democratic legislative leaders Malcolm Smith and Sheldon Silver have agreed to restore $30 million in funding to non-public schools through the Comprehensive Attendance Program (CAP) in this year’s budget.
CAP is a state mandated program for all schools. It is a security measure that requires that schools take attendance at the start of every period to ensure that students are attending their classes and not leaving the school during class time. While the governor proposed a 3.3% cut for public school funding in his proposed budget, he wanted to cut funding to yeshivahs by an astounding 44% primarily by eliminating CAP for private schools. Last year’s allocation for CAP funding was closer to $45 million. However, considering the difficult fiscal situation in Albany where the state faces a $16 billion budget shortfall, this 67% restoration in funding is a major victory for private schools and in particular for yeshivahs.
“We commend the governor as well as the Senate and Assembly leaders for restoring most of the funding for this vital CAP program,” said David G. Greenfield, Executive Vice President of SCF and counsel to TEACH NYS. “Special thanks go to the 15,000 parents who called the governor through the TEACH NYS hotline and the dozens of education leaders that joined TEACH NYS on frequent trips to Albany to successfully demand that CAP funding be restored.”
In the face of a multi-billion dollar hole in the state’s budget, Governor David Paterson cut the CAP mandate completely in his proposed budget, released late last year. After receiving over 15,000 calls protesting his private school budget cuts through a TEACH NYS hotline, the governor restored the CAP mandate but did not allocate any funding for it.
In order to put further pressure on the government to reinstate the CAP funding, TEACH NYS organized a historic visit to Albany with over 50 yeshivah leaders from across New York State to meet with some of the most influential leaders of the senate and the assembly, as well as high ranking representatives from the governor’s office. The Sephardic community’s delegation was led by SCF President Sam Sutton and included representatives of Magen David, Yeshivah of Flatbush and Barkai Yeshivah. In the end, the multi-pronged effort resulted in exactly what TEACH NYS called for—a reinstatement of most of the CAP funding and the resulting millions of dollars in funding for yeshivahs.
In another major achievement, TEACH NYS led the effort to successfully restore the liability for the difference in funding this year. That is to say, originally the governor proposed that the difference in what was paid last year versus what will be paid this year should not be owed to the private schools. However, thanks to TEACH NYS and SCF, the private schools will receive an IOU for at least $32 million in state funding which will hopefully be paid in future years when the state’s fiscal situation is improved.
