Latest update on budget cuts to schools!

August 24, 2022

On Monday, the Education Committee held hearings on the Council resolution, demanding the Mayor restore $469 million in Fair Student Funding cuts to schools.

Our testimony is here, which includes an updated analysis showing that DOE cuts to school Galaxy budgets as of August 21, 2022 totaled nearly $1.3 billion dollars. Last year, the additional funding provided schools after that date was only about $356 million, so we can expect the actual cuts to schools to be about $1 billion.  You can check out the cuts to your own school’s budget on the spreadsheet here.

We also critiqued the basic structure of the Fair Student Funding formula, and showed how it was designed to lead to large class sizes and the excessing of experienced teachers into the wasteful Absent Teacher Reserve. It is difficult to know why this won’t happen again, if these cuts aren’t restored.

You can also check out Comptroller Brad Lander’s testimony, pointing out that 1- DOE still has $600 million in unspent federal funds from last year that they’ve rolled into this year’s budget and that could be used to restore these cuts; and 2- there’s an extra $800 million in city tax revenue not reflected in the adopted city budget that will bring the city’s reserve fund to $10 billion — the biggest ever. A good clip of the proceedings from NBC news is here.

Meanwhile, the Appellate Court hearing in the budget cuts lawsuit is not scheduled until September 8, so it is imperative that the Mayor and the Council negotiate a budget modification before then. Call the Mayor at 311 and make your voice heard!

Have a great rest of the summer, Leonie