NEW YORK, NY May 09, 2007 —Chancellor Joel Klein announced a new funding formula for the city's public schools. Starting this fall, he says over 100 million dollars alone will go to 693 schools that were under-funded.
KLEIN: They'll see that their school budgets are substantially larger, more equitable and more flexible providing NYC educators with more spending power and greater decision making power.
REPORTER: The new formula is aimed at correcting an imbalance in which some schools got more money than others because they had more experienced teachers. Under the new system, schools will get a base amount per student with fixed percentages added on for students in poverty and special education classes, as well as those who are low performing and still learning English.
Klein says schools that currently have a lot of highly paid teachers won't lose any money. But critics fear a fixed formula will discourage principals from hiring more experienced teachers in the future.
