New York could become the latest state to bar students from using cell phones during school under a new statewide mandate Gov. Kathy Hochul proposed on Tuesday, Jan. 21 as part of her $252 billion budget plans.
Her proposal would require school districts to set policies to ban student phone use in buildings or on school grounds during the school day, with certain exceptions. Each district would have to prescribe other ways for parents to reach their kids and identify where students must store their phones, such as in lockers.
Hochul, in her budget presentation in Albany, pitched those rules as a crackdown on learning distractions and bullying, developed after a series of discussions she led around the state on how cell phones were affecting student learning and interaction.
“We’re not developing the skills we need because kids are distracted with the cell phones,” she said. “And how hard it is for our teachers, trying to teach algebra and geography, and they’re competing with viral dances, and messages from their friends, and sometimes threats, bullying. How do you pay attention to the subject at hand when this going on?”
Have other states banned cell phones in school?
Eight states already have banned student cell phone use during school or ordered new guidelines on phone use, while 15 more have pending bills to impose bans or restrictions, according to KFF, a health policy and research group.
Hochul’s proposal carves out exceptions that include letting students use their phones for specific educational purposes, when needed for medical reasons, for translations and for emergencies.
All school districts to get aid boost in NY budget plan
The governor ruffled feathers last year by proposing to cut aid to half the state’s school districts, largely due to past enrollment declines. State lawmakers fought back and got her to restore a longstanding policy followed in past budgets that ensures no district gets less state funding than it got the year before.
No such clashes are likely this year. Hochul left that “save harmless” policy intact and even proposed raising aid for every district by at least 2%. Lawmakers are sure to embrace the idea, having tried in vain in last year’s budget negotiations to provide 3% minimum increases.
Hochul proposed $37.4 billion in total school aid, a 4.7% increase over next year. Her plans include some long-sought changes in the complex formula used to distribute funds to districts, including what are said to be more accurate and recent measures of poverty levels.
What else did Hochul propose in NY’s 2025 budget?
Hochul’s budget would implement a menu of cost-cutting ideas she has already previewed in past announcements, aimed at taming New York’s high living costs and making the state more affordable.
They include cutting income tax rates in five brackets, covering all joint filers earning less than $323,300. Her proposal on Tuesday specified that $1 billion cut would entail shaving 0.2 percentage points over two years, which means rates that now range from 4% to 6% would dip to 3.8% to 5.8%.
She also wants to send New Yorkers “inflation refund” checks of $300 or $500 per household; raise the child tax credit to as high as $1,000 per child; and offer free school lunch and breakfast to every student, a universal benefit she said could be reached with an additional $120 million in state funding this year.
Will NY see a budget increase in 2025?
The overall state budget would rise by $8.6 billion, or 3.6%, driven largely by increases in school aid and Medicaid. State spending on Medicaid, the public health insurance funded jointly by the federal government and the states (and also New York City and counties in New York), is set to jump by $4.3 billion, or 14%.
Hochul’s proposal kicks off two months of negotiations with the state legislature to try to finalize a spending plan before the April 1 deadline.
Chris McKenna covers government and politics for The Journal News and USA Today Network. Reach him at cmckenna@gannett.com.
