A new report from the Alliance for Quality Education says high-need school districts are owed millions of dollars from a decade-old court ruling, including nine on Long Island.
On Tuesday, advocates in Brentwood called on state lawmakers to make students and schools a priority next session.
Brentwood relies heavily on state aid because it is considered a low-wealth, high-need school district.
The report says that Brentwood is one of the nine high-need districts on Long Island that got less than 10 percent of the funding they were supposed to have received.
Brentwood's superintendent says his district is owed $124 million. It's money he was planning on using to put back programs that had already been cut.
"It was supposed to be a four-year rollout for the campaign for fiscal equity," says Blanca Villanueva, of the Alliance for Quality Education. "School districts received funding for two years, which was $2.1 billion. Unfortunately due to the economy, then there was a freeze."