Education is one of the biggest individual chunks of the New York state budget, and Gov. Kathy Hochul unveiled several proposals in her State of the State address intended to make education more affordable for New Yorkers. She isn’t expected to detail how exactly the state will pay for them until next week. 

What stuck out immediately was a lack of any mention of tweaks to the Foundation Aid formula, which along with other forms of school aid will support education spending. Details of what the governor plans to do with the Rockefeller Institute’s Foundation Aid report weren’t necessarily expected in the State of the State address itself given that school aid is typically considered fairly in the weeds.

Budget officials told Spectrum News 1 the governor is expected to propose at least some tweaks to the formula when the executive budget is unveiled next week. 

Absent any concrete information on updates to Foundation Aid, affordability initiatives stole the show when it comes to education.

“We’re going to make community college completely free for students age 25 to 55,” Hochul told the crowd gathered at The Egg in Albany.

The proposal for free community college is intended to benefit both adults looking for a new career path and the economy, as it is focused specifically on in-demand occupations.

“We’re talking about people 25-55 who want to complete a degree and want to move into a new field in the economy. It's an opportunity for them to earn more by getting a degree that unlocks a great job,” SUNY Chancellor John King said.

On K-12 education, the governor further detailed plans to expand free school meals to all New York students.

“So children who are in need are spared the embarrassment and stigma of standing out among their peers,” she said in her speech.

It’s that combination of reducing stigma and ensuring all students have access to those meals that made the issue a priority for Assemblymember Jessica González-Rojas, who drove the significance home Tuesday.

“We’ve been fighting for years to advocate for school meals, and we're finally going to get to universal, which is so incredible because you cannot teach a hungry child,” she said.

The state Budget Division said that school meals are already about 85-90% funded through state and federal initiatives.

The governor is also continuing her fight against cell phones in the classroom, teasing a proposal to eliminate cell phones as a classroom distraction, and proposing further initiatives to encourage kids to put their phones down even outside of school. That initiative is called “unplug and play.”

Hochul has made a clear point to cement herself as a leader in the effort to regulate the role cell phones and social media play in the lives of New York’s youth.

Not everyone, including Rotterdam Assemblymember Angelo Santabarbara, is on board with the idea of a universal cell phone ban.

“It should be a school district decision. We do have to respect the school districts, they have an elected boards and a lot of the school districts are going that way, but I don’t know that we should force that on anyone,” he said

The governor’s speech unsurprisingly received praise from Democrats, including a glowing review from Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie.

Senate Minority Leader Rob Ortt conceded that he liked a lot of what he heard when it came to tax cuts and credits, but specifically has concerns with the proposals that start with “free.”

“There are things in there that no doubt Republicans have been talking about for some time,” he said. “But there are things in there that there’s a cost for, and she didn’t really identify what that cost is, free college, free school meals, no price tag.”

When it comes to younger children, in addition to an expansion to the child tax credit that has already been announced, Hochul spearheaded an initiative to improve the physical condition of New York’s child care facilities. That would even include grants for renovating family child care centers. Also mentioned was a substitute system to ensure child care is not interrupted if a facility is forced to close.

The governor also proposed the New York Coalition for Child Care, described as a collection of stakeholders tasked with identifying a “responsible and sustainable path” to universal child care in New York.