The state’s recently passed budget includes a large amount of funding for state schools, impacting local school districts and students in the community.

This week, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced “historic education funding” for the 2024 budget. Included in the state’s budget is $34.5 billion in total School Aid for 2024, marking a record level of funding for the state. Chautauqua County schools received a combined additional $30,687,272 in state aid, or roughly 14.69% when compared to the 2022-23 school year which also came with record state aid increases.

The smallest aid increases for county schools were 3% bumps in Cassadaga Valley ($381,166), Chautauqua Lake ($139,854), Clymer ($128,505), Panama ($208,552) and Ripley ($143,519). Bemus Point saw a 4.5% increase of $166,231, Forestville received $247,310 more (4.83%) and Pine Valley ($575,036 received a 6.92% increase in aid.

The rest of the county’s schools saw aid increases of more than 10%. Those include:

¯ Brocton, an $876,372 (10.61%) increase

¯ Dunkirk, a $5,211,579 (19.37%) increase

¯ Falconer, an ($3,287,203 (26.83%) increase

¯ Fredonia, a $2,082,856 (20.99%) increase

¯ Frewsburg, a $1,605,142 (17.31%) increase

¯ Sherman, an $805,581 (14.26%) increase

¯ Silver Creek, a $1,777,205 (14.56%) increase

¯ Southwestern, a $2,285,487 (25.30%) increase

¯ Westfield, a $1,607,515 (14.69%) increase.

“All New Yorkers deserve access to a high-quality education, from prekindergarten through their college graduation,” Hochul said. “Thanks to the help of Majority Leader Stewart-Cousins and Speaker Heastie, this unprecedented level of transformational investments will open new doors for more students to build a brighter future for themselves and gain the skills needed for the jobs of the future.”

The state’s budget includes $24 billion in Foundation Aid for state school districts, marking a $2.6 billion increase from last year’s budget. With the increase in the budget, the state will fully fund Foundation Aid for the first time.

In addition to the increase in Foundation Aid, the state’s budget includes $150 million for expanding prekindergarten to 20,000 children throughout the state, $134 million to expand students’ access to free meals at school, $20 million for Early College High School and Pathways in Technology Early College High School funding that will allow students to earn college credits while in high school, $2.4 billion in SUNY and CUNY capital project funding, $500 million in matching fund contributions for endowments of SUNY’s four university centers and $381 million in additional operating support for SUNY and CUNY schools.