Rural New York schools anticipate a tough budget year

New York had been anticipating a $7.5 billion budget gap even before the passage of the Republicans’ “Big Beautiful Bill.”

With federal cuts costing the state an estimated $3 billion more, the state is looking at places to save.

Education and health care are the two largest pieces of the state’s budget pie, so the chances of those areas being cut is very high. 

According to Dave Little, executive director of the Rural Schools Association of New York State (RSA), the greatest looming threat to small schools is possible education cuts to backfill federal cuts to health care. 

Little told Capital Tonight that issue has the potential to derail the state’s ability to transform the state’s public educational focus called “Portrait of a Graduate,” an effort led by the New York state Board of Regents.

Little joined Capital Tonight to discuss the challenges rural schools are facing, and preview the RSA’s upcoming round of Rural Issues Forums.