{"id":191550,"date":"2026-04-09T23:59:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T23:59:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/191550\/"},"modified":"2026-04-09T23:59:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T23:59:07","slug":"lack-of-funding-making-it-hard-for-rural-schools","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/191550\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;Lack of funding&#8221; making it hard for rural schools"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>David Little, the executive director of the Rural Schools Association of New York State, is calling on state lawmakers for help.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThree-hundred-and-thirty is the number of our members that classify themselves as being rural and joined the association,\u201d said Little. \u201cThere\u2019s roughly 700 school districts in New York. So, just about half.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Earlier this year, the association released a report called <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nysenate.gov\/sites\/default\/files\/admin\/structure\/media\/manage\/filefile\/a\/2026-01\/rural-school-association.pdf\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">\u201cThe Hard Work of Staying,\u201d<\/a> detailing seven of the key challenges making it difficult for rural schools to keep their doors open.<\/p>\n<p>According to the report, the top three concerns include staffing shortages, student mental health, and a lack of proper funding. Specifically, what\u2019s considered for funding.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s based on things we needed a generation ago,\u201d said Little. \u201cThere\u2019s nothing in the formula for student mental health. There\u2019s nothing for school safety, and these are the largest concerns of students and the schools that teach them these days.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>When it comes to school funding, money is distributed at the federal, state and local level. Primarily for schools in the Empire State, Little says the money that funds school districts is from local government and that\u2019s where he feels the disparity comes in.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf you have a wealthy tax base within your community, you\u2019re all set,\u201d said Little. \u201cIf you don\u2019t like many rural schools don\u2019t\u2026 you don\u2019t have much of a local tax base.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As state budget negotiations continue, both one-house budgets are calling for a 2% increase and the governor\u2019s budget calls for a 1% increase in Foundation Aid, which is New York\u2019s primary method for distributing funds to school districts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"David Little, the executive director of the Rural Schools Association of New York State, is calling on state&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":191551,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[203,109,116,67,9,11,10,49,51,50,12,5304,112,87,27,200],"class_list":{"0":"post-191550","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-app-education","9":"tag-app-local-state-politics","10":"tag-app-ny-state-of-politics","11":"tag-education","12":"tag-new-york","13":"tag-new-york-headlines","14":"tag-new-york-news","15":"tag-new-york-state","16":"tag-new-york-state-headlines","17":"tag-new-york-state-news","18":"tag-news","19":"tag-nicole-neuman","20":"tag-ny-state-of-politics","21":"tag-politics","22":"tag-top-stories","23":"tag-vod"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191550","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=191550"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191550\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/191551"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=191550"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=191550"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=191550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}