The Hornell City School District would see a nearly 5% increase in a key state funding stream under Gov. Kath Hochul’s 2026-27 executive budget.
The governor released her $260 billion spending plan on Jan. 20. The budget includes $39.3 billion in total aid to New York state’s 673 major public school districts, an increase of $1.6 billion or 4.3% over the previous year.
Foundation Aid, the state’s primary funding mechanism for day to day operations of schools, is up $779 million or 3% under Hochul’s budget to a total of $27.1 billion next school year.
And the executive budget includes a significant increase in funding for full-day pre-kindergarten for four-year-olds, allocating $1.5 billion for the 2026-27 academic year, a 40% increase or about $430 million over last year.
According to the governor, the budget provides support to ensure universal full-day Pre-K for all four-year-olds in the state by the 2029 fiscal year.
With this budget, Hochul will have increased school aid by approximately $10 billion (34%) over five years, according to the governor’s office.
The final budget will be negotiated with the state Legislature, but Hochul’s funding plan will be the revenue framework that districts use to build their own spending plans ahead of statewide school budget votes in May.
How much state aid Hornell schools receive in governor’s budget
The executive budget includes $33,601,132 in aid to the Hornell City School District for the 2026-27 academic year. That level of funding represents a 2.24% increase over the 2025-26 school year.
Under the governor’s budget, Hornell would receive $22,919,777 in Foundation Aid, a 4.88% or just over $1 million increase compared to last year.
“We are obviously pleased with what that looks like for Hornell,” School Superintendent Jeremy Palotti said. “Part of that is our enrollment has been increasing for the last few years. Because (Foundation Aid) is formula driven, that helps.”
Palotti said the school district’s enrollment has gone up three years in a row. According to the New York state Department of Education, the city’s school district K-12 enrollment for the 2024-25 academic year, the most recent year available, was 1,356.
Hornell’s aid per pre-kindergarten pupil is increasing by more than $3,000, according to the executive budget, with approximately $12,650 in aid for each child enrolled in the program.
Palotti said the governor’s budget provides the first increase for the program since its inception in Hornell.
“Given that we haven’t seen increases in almost 20 years, we are pleased to see increases for this program,” Palotti said.
But Hornell officials say questions still remain about the Pre-K funding, given that previous allocations were capped at 40 pupils.
“(The increase) is helpful now, because it gets closer to having this program (fully) funded, but if it moves with the actual enrollment that would be even more helpful,” he said.
Why state aid numbers are important to local school districts
Funding from New York state is the largest source of revenue − by far − for most if not all public school districts.
In Hornell, state and federal aid accounts for about three of every four dollars on the revenue side of the budget each year. The second largest funding source is local school taxes.
Palotti said administrators will begin presenting the district 2026-27 draft budget to the school board in February.
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This article originally appeared on The Evening Tribune: Hornell school Foundation Aid up 5% in governor’s budget. What it means
Reporting by Neal Simon, Hornell Evening Tribune / The Evening Tribune
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