Ithaca, N.Y. — The Ithaca City School District Board of Education approved a resolution last week that calls upon New York state to end Gap Elimination Adjustment, according to a press release.
Gap Elimination Adjustment, or GEA, is a state practice of reducing school districts’ state aid allocation each year to help New York fill a revenue shortfall, according to the New York State School Boards Association.
The resolution says state aid to the Ithaca City School District has dropped by over $20 million because of GEA.
GEA was originally implemented as a one-time way to cut New York’s budget gap during the 09-10 school year, but has continued. The ICSD resolution says that the reduction in aid puts extra costs on local taxpayers and calls the practice “unsustainable.”
The resolution also cites a “reduction and elimination of school programs, personnel, and services, and the reductions of school district reserve funds” as reasons to end Gap Elimination Adjustment.