Teach NYS, a project of the Orthodox Union Advocacy Center, praised New York State officials for their announcement today that they will release a year of funding this week owed to non-public schools. The funding from monies the state withheld during the 2004-05 school year.
The funding, which comes from the Comprehensive Attendance Policy (CAP) program, is given to non-public schools for carrying out certain state-mandated actions. The CAP program has been historically under-funded.
“This is yet another positive development in Albany that comes from our diligent advocacy,” said Maury Litwack, Director of State Political Affairs for the Orthodox Union Advocacy Center. “We are extremely grateful for our partners in government for addressing this issue.” Teach NYS is the leading voice for Jewish education in New York State.
This week’s payment comes as part of the 2015 end-of-session agreement in which the state released $250 million in CAP arrears funding for non-public schools. Unlike other repayments from this legislation, this round of repayments requires schools to either verify their claims online or submit a request for verification by mail in order to receive their payment.
The 2015 agreement which was reached between Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie in June 2015 set aside $250 million over two years to repay schools for a period of underfunding of the CAP program in previous administrations. Teach NYS maintains a full-time lobbying team in Albany during the legislative session and has long advocated for increases to CAP and other state-mandated funding as well as this repayment.
“This funding announcement is indicative of the tremendous leadership of our legislative partners” said Jake Adler, Policy Director for Teach NYS. “Thanks to Governor Cuomo, Leader Flanagan and Speaker Heastie, our schools are receiving funding that they have been owed for over a decade”.
In addition to its fulltime advocacy team Teach NYS also employs a full staff of school resources specialists who are able to work with any day school or yeshiva to ensure they are receiving the correct funding from all levels of government.