Borough & districtFull briefing
Fair Student Funding still doesn't cover the schools that need it most
The longer form of the briefing for this story: the original thesis, the supporting findings the data team flagged, and the reporting directions a journalist could follow. For the short version and the data analysis, see the main story page.
Thesis
NYC's Fair Student Funding (FSF) policy weights per-pupil dollars by student need. After 17 years, FSF formula has been criticized as still under-resourcing the highest-need schools. Use proclivity decile as the need proxy and per-pupil spend as the resource — show the gap.
Supporting findings
- Need: ingest NYC DOE School Allocation Memos (SAMs) — per-school per-pupil dollar amounts.
- Once joined: compute spend × proclivity-decile correlation. Should be strong positive if FSF works.
- Critics say: weights aren't generous enough; new schools get more than they need; high-tax-base PTA money fills gaps unevenly.
- Some schools raise $1M+/year in PTA dollars (mostly Manhattan, parts of Brooklyn).
- Pull NYC PTA + Educational Foundations data (Form 990s).
- Test: total per-pupil (FSF + PTA) by proclivity decile.
- Compare with Massachusetts Foundation Budget Review or NJ's school funding court rulings.
- What would 'true equity' funding look like in NYC — and how much would it cost?
- Class Size law (2022 NYC) — has its rollout accelerated funding to high-need schools?
- Frame: 'The poorest NYC schools get more FSF dollars. They still end up with less total funding than the richest schools, after PTA + private donations.'
Reporting directions
- Ingest SAM data.
- Pull NYC public schools' Form 990s for the 100 largest PTAs.
- Build the funding-equity scatter.
- Interview Class Size Matters (Leonie Haimson) for advocacy framing.