State support urged for Catholic schools

Governor Kathy Hochul’s proposed Elementary and Secondary Education Budget would enable “lawmakers to support the state’s Catholic and other religious and independent schools in a way that will help our schools fill the financial and programmatic gaps exacerbated by the pandemic,” said the New York State Catholic Conference’s director for education.

James D. Cultrara testified Jan. 26 at a joint legislative hearing on behalf of the NYS Council of Catholic School Superintendents, of the critical need for state support. 

“While enduring the enormous challenges brought on by the COVID pandemic, Catholic schools have once again proven their dedication to and singular focus on the well-being of the children they serve,” Cultrara stated. “By faithfully implementing COVID safety protocols, our schools have been able to provide children and their families precisely what they have needed most: Safe, continuous, in-person instruction, while many other schools have not.

“Our continued success, however, has not been without significant costs and setbacks. More than 30 Catholic schools closed due to the loss and reduction of income of our tuition-paying families.”

Cultrara said during the pandemic, Catholic schools have had to “shoulder many unanticipated costs” to keep students in the classroom. From adding nurses, installing physical barriers and purchasing personal protective equipment - just to name a few - the costs add up to $1,000 to $5,000 per student. 

Here’s a summary of Cultrara’s testimony and where additional state support is needed for schools in the Diocese of Albany:

Health, Safety, & Security:  Hochul has proposed a significant increase in funding, from $15 million to $45 million, for the Non-Public Safety Equipment (NPSE) program as well as an expansion of the allowable expenses to include remediation of hazardous conditions and the maintenance and repair of facilities, all in an effort to protect the health and safety of the students, staff and community members who use our school buildings. 

STEM:  Hochul recommends an increase in funding to support Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math education in Catholic schools, from $40 million to $55 million. Cultrara urged increased support for the program toward $100 million to meet current demand.

Energy Efficiency Projects:  Cultrara urged adoption of a combined energy efficiency grant and loan program of $75 million to provide seed money to initiate energy efficiency projects. 

Transportation Services / Funding: Cultrara urges the following: (1) provide $25 million to reimburse our schools for their share of the costs of transporting students where there are gaps in or an absence of public school district-provided transportation; (2) restore 90 percent state reimbursement of school district costs of transporting religious and independent school students; (3) require transportation to be provided when there are unavoidable disparities in school schedules and calendars; (4) require small city school districts to transport children up to the maximum mileage limit rather than city limits; and (5) increase the maximum distance school districts are required to transport children to school from 15 to 25 miles.

State Office of Religious and Independent Schools (SORIS): Hochul’s budget adopts the regents’ request for a $657,000 increase, from $800,000 to $1,457,000, to support the work of SORIS including work related to enforcement of the “substantial equivalency” provisions of the education law and SED regulations. Cultrara urges the  restoration of the original $2 million for SORIS, but supports the regents' and Hochul’s recommendation.

Teacher Workforce: In addition to equitable participation in these initiatives, Cultrara urged a separate $10 million appropriation to support the on-going teacher and leader professional development needs of religious and independent schools.

Nursing Services:  An increasing number of children have acute and chronic health problems that require the daily attention and care of professional school nurses. Cultrara urges an inclusion of sufficient funding to ensure that a full-time nurse is available for every public, independent and religious school.

Academic Intervention Services (AIS):  Only $922,000 is available for AIS, far below the $20 million needed. AIS funding should be increased so that, like public schools, our schools are able to provide these services to our children who are most in need, Cultrara stated.

Helping Tuition-Paying Families: Cultrara said this is, by far, the area of greatest need for the families who sacrifice to send their children to religious and independent schools. These families are shouldering the dual burden of paying taxes to support public schools while simultaneously paying tuition to support their own children’s education – paying twice for education, as it were. We urge an enactment of a meaningful tuition assistance program to enable children of the neediest families, including low- and working-class families, to attend a school best suited for them.

“Even though 13 percent of children in New York State attend a religious or independent school, less than 1 percent of state education spending is devoted to these children. The bulk of the cost of educating these children is shouldered by their families already overburdened with taxes to support the public education system,” Cultrara stated. “Continued and expanded state support of the students in religious and independent schools will benefit virtually every community across the state and will help make New York the truly progressive state it continues to aspire to be.”