New York City Council calls for Department of Education to restore $469 million to school budgets
NEW YORK -- The New York City Council on Tuesday passed a resolution calling on the mayor and schools chancellor to immediately reverse the Department of Education's cuts to school budgets.
The resolution calls for the DOE to restore $469 million.
"We are strongly calling on the mayor to do the right thing," Councilmember Lincoln Restler said. "Without his intervention, we are going to see larger class sizes on Thursday, fewer music and art teachers ... Essential cuts to our schools that we simply cannot afford."
"We also have to acknowledge why we're in the position that we're in. It's because of a drop-off in student enrollment, and that drop-off didn't just start in the pandemic," Councilmember Joseph Borelli said. "Consider that people that do leave the public school system are still our constituents, and I would hope that we would begin looking at other alternatives, such as tuition tax credits, vouchers and the expansion of the charter cap."
A City Hall spokesperson released the following statement:
"Mayor Adams and Chancellor Banks are committed to providing students with the best education possible and every single student in our school system remains at 100% Fair Student Funding. After hearing from principals and other community leaders that they need additional time to adjust to the decline in enrollment, this administration announced a package of $150 million in additional support for schools. Further, we have allocated all federal stimulus dollars to critical programs and needs. We look forward to opening our schools with the resources they need to ensure our students thrive."
