New York State Deputy Secretary to the Governor Subject Files Concerning State Financial Aid for Education

Arranged by topic in no particular order.

In October 1969 Governor Rockefeller and the State Board of Regents created the New York State Commission on the Quality, Cost, and Financing of Elementary and Secondary Education, chaired by Manly Fleischmann. School financing recommendations made by the "Fleischmann Commission," which would have increased school taxes in upstate New York and reduced school expenditures in a significant number of downstate suburban districts, were never implemented.

Governor Rockefeller approved the creation of the Task Force on State Aid to Elementary and Secondary Schools based on a decision memo submitted to him by T. Norman Hurd, secretary to the governor. Lois Wilson, who served as deputy secretary to the governor from March 29, 1973 until December 31, 1974 and as special assistance to the governor for education from January 1 to July 24, 1975, assisted in preparing the memo. The first meeting of the Task Force was held in early July 1973, and a five-member study group was established including one representative from the governor, the senate, and the assembly.

B1220-82: These files were generated by staff of the governor's office in the course of researching and making recommendations to the governor and the legislature regarding state aid for education. The files were collected and maintained by Lois Wilson, a Deputy Secretary to the Governor and, from January 1 to July 24, 1975, the Special Assistant to the Governor for Education. Some of the files originated in the office of Edgar W. Martin, a budget examiner who handled state education aid for the Division of the Budget. The records document the work of several committees studying the issue of state education aid, as described below.

1) Joint Legislative Committee on School Financing (Diefendorf Committee), 1960-1963. Records concerning this committee include: state aid allocation proposals, including proposed legislation; alternative state aid computation methods and formulas; cost projections; press releases regarding new state aid formulas; and 1963 interim report proposing State Education Department control over school expenditures.

2) Cooperative Study of Educational Finance, 1974-1975. Representatives of the Senate, Assembly, State Education Department, Division of the Budget, Governor's office, and Division of Equalization and Assessment studied ten major areas: alternative measures of local fiscal capacity; evaluation of provisions for handicapped aid and special services; school district enrollment declines and their impact on districts; use of state PEP (Pupil Evaluation Program) tests as a measure of pupils with special educational needs; impact of 1974 state aid increase on 1974-1975 tax rates; review of building aid formula; review of transportation aid formula; report on 1974-1975 state aid payable to school districts; examination of factors in formula for calculating state aid; and examination of BOCES (Board of Cooperative Educational Services) governance and use of shared services.

Records of this study include: meeting agendas and notes; financial and statistical tabulations; federal legislative bill proposals and memoranda analyzing them; statements and press releases of State Education Commissioner Ewald B. Nyquist; and reports of findings.

3) Task Force on Aid to Education, 1975. Lois Wilson coordinated the work of this 30-member task force appointed by Governor Hugh L. Carey to make recommendations regarding school finance, state and New York City school governance, special education, and early childhood education. Records of this task force include: the two-volume final report to the governor, and drafts of sections of the report; dissenting statements of some task force members; research materials, articles, and statistical tables (estimates of state aid, enrollment figures, property tax data, etc.) used to develop the recommendations included in the report; and drafts of the governor's statements on education and on the task force report and recommendations.

4) Task Force on State Aid for Elementary and Secondary Schools, 1973-1974. A small amount of records documenting the work of this task force includes: findings, reports, and recommendations; "working principles" upon which development of recommendations was based; and reports on various topics (e.g. examination of the BOCES program; teacher absenteeism in New York City) by the State Office of Education Performance Review.

B1220-98: This accretion consists of material created by the Task Force on State Aid for Elementary and Secondary Education (1973-1974) and by the New York State Commission on the Quality, Cost and Financing of Elementary and Secondary Education (1972), also known as the Fleischmann Commission, as follows.

Task Force on State Aid for Elementary and Secondary Education. Subject files consist of material documenting state aid and educational financing in other states; property taxes; disparity of costs and expenditures between city and surburban schools; and the earlier Fleischmann Commission.

Other material includes published and unpublished reports entitled "Report of the 1973-1974 Task Force on State Aid for Elementary and Secondary Schools;" "Fiscal Implications of Proposed Equalized Effort Plan for Education Aid or The Financing of Elementary and Secondary Education: a Proposal (excerpted 1973)" which provided the basis for the preliminary report released by the Task Force calling for equalization within a special region; and "Working Principles".

Four other reports released by the Task Force in 1974 are present. They are "Preliminary Proposal for 1974 Legislation on State Aid for Elementary and Secondary Schools;" "1974 Legislation on State Aid for Elementary and Secondary Schools: A Summary;" "Task Force Proposal for 1974 Legislation on State Aid for Elementary and Secondary Schools: An Overview;" and "Report to 1975 New York State Legislature on State Aid for Elementary and Secondary Education (December 1974)."

A binder contains copies of bills and related legislation enacted through 1978 related to financing state education.

Fleischmann Commission. Also included in this accretion are volumes one and two of the "Report of the New York State Commission on Quality, Cost and Financing of Elementary and Secondary Education (1972); State Education Department summaries of volumes 1-3, and related materials; a summary of volumes I and II published by the New York State Education Department; a reprinting of the last chapter summarizing the report; and a summary of chapter four released by the Commission (February 1972).

B1220-82: Preliminary container list provided by agency.

B1220-98: A description of the records prepared by agency staff is available.

There are no restrictions regarding access to or use of the material.