Governor Kathy Hochul released her first state budget proposal this week, and while she recommends increasing support for public schools by some 7 percent, her recommended increases in funding to support Catholic and other religious and independent schools amounts to an 18 percent increase. Specifically, Governor Hochul triples funding for health, safety, and security projects in our schools (from $15 million to $45 million) and allows nonpublic schools, for the first time, to use the funds to support critical maintenance and repairs of school facilities. Governor Hochul also increases support for Science, Technology, Engineering & Math (STEM) instruction in our schools from $40 million to $55 million.