Although the New York State Budget for Fiscal Year 2010-11 is not yet finalized, there is one appropriation that has already been confirmed, and it is good news for yeshivos. 

Well, at least better news than had been expected earlier on in the budget process.

The appropriation for the Comprehensive Attendance Program (CAP), which reimburses nonpublic schools for costs they incur in taking multiple attendances each day, keeping records of such attendance taking and following up on student absences and latenesses, is $28.5 million.  This appropriation is 5% less than last year’s appropriation of $30 million – which is an equivalent proportion to cuts made in public school funding.

This past April, under the cloud of the state’s budgetary woes, New York Governor David Paterson amended his original budget proposal for CAP of $28.5 million by cutting it in half, to approximately $14 million.  This cut would have meant a loss of $4 million in CAP monies for yeshivos, and was totally disproportionate to cuts being made on the public school side.  

Upon learning of the proposed 50% cut, Agudath Israel decided to take the case to preserve this crucial reimbursement to state legislators in Albany.  In early May, Rabbi Shmuel Lefkowitz, Agudath Israel’s vice president for community affairs, together with Mrs. Deborah Zachai, the organization’s director of education affairs, organized a delegation of some 20 yeshiva representatives and askonim on a mission to Albany, coordinated by Assemblyman Dov Hikind,  where they met with Governor David Paterson and key legislators in both the State Assembly and Senate.  One of the major items on their agenda was conveying a message to the legislators: if cuts needed to be made in education funding, they should be made equitably, with equal impact on both the public and nonpublic sectors. 

And so, while the bottom line result of a $28.5 million appropriation for CAP represents a reduction of 5% from last year’s allocation, the cut is relatively minimal and is in line with cuts to public educational services – a major victory when one considers the 50% cut that had been proposed.
   
Agudath Israel expressed its thanks and appreciation to Governor David Paterson and his staff, and to Senate Democratic Conference Leader John Sampson and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, for their support for this important funding in a difficult financial climate.

Agudath Israel also expressed its thanks to Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith, Senators Eric Adams, Ruth Hassell- Thompson, Craig Johnson, Carl Kruger, Kevin Parker, Diane Savino, Eric Schneiderman, Daniel Squadron, Toby Stavisky and Antoine Thompson; and to Assembly members Peter Abbate ,Jim Brennan, Richard Brodsky, William Colton, Steven Cymbrowitz, Rhoda Jacobs, Dov Hikind, Michael Cusick, Charles Lavine, Alan Maisel, Audrey Pheffer, Helene Weinstein, David Weprin and Kenneth Zebrowski.

“We haven’t given up on getting the full amount nonpublic schools are entitled to under the CAP reimbursement program, which is approximately $55 million,” said Rabbi Lefkowitz.  “But it’s obvious that full reimbursement was not in the budgetary cards this year, and we have to be grateful that we were able to avoid even deeper cuts.”

(YWN Desk – NYC)