ALBANY – Senator Tom Libous’ office yesterday released the specific amounts Chenango County’s school districts will receive in the 2012-13 New York State budget agreement announced Wednesday.

The Senator said he fought to replace millions in competitive grants back to the school aid formula in order to help upstate schools. Locally, this added $5,786,719 to the original increase for a total increase of $11,773,855 in school aid to Libous’ district from last year’s budget.

“I worked very hard on the competitive grants to get additional aid to the upstate New York schools districts. I hope it’s the beginning of turning things around in helping upstate do the things that they need to do educationally for their kids,” he said this morning.

The Statewide School Finance Consortium described the allocation of $290 million in new aid and the reallocation of a portion of state monies originally designated for performance grants as “a tiny first step” in the process of sending dollars to school and communities that need them the most.

“State leaders have embraced on a clear, albeit limited, basis the rationale championed for several years by the Statewide School Finance Consortium – that the distribution of state aid must move to a model that sends dollars to schools and communities that need them the most,” a press release stated.