{"id":136795,"date":"2026-02-17T23:35:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T23:35:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/136795\/"},"modified":"2026-02-17T23:35:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T23:35:07","slug":"stavisky-fumes-about-equal-opportunity-program-funding-cuts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/136795\/","title":{"rendered":"Stavisky fumes about equal opportunity program funding cuts"},"content":{"rendered":"

Despite Gov. Kathy Hochul\u2019s promise of creating an equitable statewide higher education system, opportunity programs designed for disadvantaged students may lose money this fiscal year. During a panel at City & State\u2019s Higher Education Summit, state Sen. Toby Ann Stavisky said Hochul\u2019s executive budget<\/a> will make cuts to these programs.<\/p>\n

\u201cLast year in the 2025 budget, the Senate or the Assembly together, we restored the governor’s cuts to the opportunity programs,\u201d Stavisky told City & State. \u201cThis year, she cut what we added. I mean, the money’s still there, but she cut what the Legislature added.\u201d<\/p>\n

Funding for a few equal opportunity programs was not renewed in Hochul\u2019s budget proposal. The SUNY Equal Opportunity Program and SUNY Higher Education Opportunity Program were cut by $2.7 million and $2.9 million respectively, about a 6% decrease from last year for both, according to Stavisky\u2019s office.<\/p>\n

Funding from the cuts was allocated toward construction, Stavisky explained.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe put a lot of additional money into construction, and that we knew last year was going to be just one year,\u201d she said, referring to the governor\u2019s investment into SUNY Downstate<\/a>. \u201cThat’s why the budget for education looks lower, but we knew that was going to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

The programs were legislative additions during budget negotiations that were added to the final spending plan, the governor\u2019s office told City & State. Legislators will meet in a joint budget hearing about higher education<\/a> Feb. 24, and the cut to these programs will definitely be a talking point, according to Stavisky: \u201cWe want to be sure that we restore that funding also, perhaps with an increase,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The governor\u2019s proposed program cuts come as the Trump administration mandated states to end diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives<\/a>, something Hochul has refused to comply with<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“The governor looks forward to negotiating in good faith with the Legislature over the coming weeks to finalize the budget,” Hochul\u2019s spokesperson Emma Wallner said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Despite Gov. Kathy Hochul\u2019s promise of creating an equitable statewide higher education system, opportunity programs designed for disadvantaged…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":136796,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[67,4619,3066,9,11,10,49,51,50,2327],"class_list":{"0":"post-136795","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-education","9":"tag-events","10":"tag-heard-around-town","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-headlines","13":"tag-new-york-news","14":"tag-new-york-state","15":"tag-new-york-state-headlines","16":"tag-new-york-state-news","17":"tag-news-politics"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136795","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=136795"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136795\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/136796"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=136795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=136795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}