Thursday, October 1, 2026
Long Beach schools stand to lose millions of dollars in state education aid after Gov. Andrew Cuomo unveiled a proposed state budget last week that includes significant cuts in education, as the state grapples with a $10 billion deficit.
According to Michael DeVito, the school district’s chief operating officer, Long Beach could lose approximately $4.2 million, or 22 percent, of its expected state aid for 2011-12 if Cuomo’s $132.9 spending plan is approved by the state Legislature.
Cuomo’s budget proposal includes $1.5 billion in cuts in education aid for schools statewide, and comes as the Long Beach Board of Education and administrators gear up for budget talks next month.
DeVito said that the proposed cuts could significantly impact programs and services in the district next year. “If one of our revenue sources goes down,” he said, “we have to find a way to fill that gap.”
He added, “We’re talking about a lot of money. We’ll manage through it. But it does have an impact on us.”
Last year, voters approved the current $116.4 million school spending plan.
School Superintendent Dr. Robert Greenberg said that Cuomo’s proposal would make efforts to maintain programs in the district, while easing the burden on taxpayers, more challenging as school officials craft the 2011-12 budget.
“When you’re projected to lose millions of dollars like we are, it’s not easy sledding,” Greenberg said, noting the importance of being able to deliver quality programs to students while being responsible to taxpayers. “We [took] some time putting together some nice programs that we want to preserve. You try to preserve the programs that are important. It’s not always easy to do.”
“State revenues are much less than what the expenditure budget is,” DeVito said in explaining the proposed reductions. “This is because of the economy. And it has a trickle-down effect in terms of schools.”
School officials said that reduced state aid could mean the elimination of staff positions. DeVito did not specify which positions might be cut.
“We don’t plan to reduce any programs, but it may necessitate some alternative staff planning in order to support these programs that could lead to overall reduction in staff,” he said.
