Contracts for Excellence
The 2007-08 Enacted State Budget included unprecedented increases in school aid, primarily in the form of a new category, Foundation Aid. For districts that received an increase in Foundation Aid over a certain dollar or percentage threshold and had at least one school with substandard academic performance, the Contracts for Excellence (C4E) Program was established to provide additional accountability. C4E was designed to be a comprehensive approach to targeting fiscal resources to specific allowable programs which were believed by the Legislature and Governor to raise the achievement of the students with the greatest educational need. For those districts that are required to submit a C4E plan subject to approval by the Commissioner of Education, the dollar amounts of such plans have remained frozen since the 2012-13 Enacted State Budget.