Mayor threatens even more budget cuts; send your letters today!

June 24, 2020

Friends–

Update: The NYC budget is due June 30, a week from today. This morning, Mayor de Blasio announced that he is considering another $1 billion in cuts, which would necessitate the layoff of an additional 22,000 municipal workers.  

PLEASE, send a letter to the Mayor and Chancellor today, if you haven’t already, urging him NOT to cut the education budget but to allocate more funding to schools as this will be necessary to ensure health, safety and sufficient teachers and counselors to allow for smaller classes, social distancing and the support NYC kids will badly need, given the losses they have suffered this year.

Also, send a letter to the NYC Council Speaker and Education/Finance chairs, with much the same message.

2.This morning, I spent three hours in a meeting of the Regents Advisory Task Force, discussing what programs and precautions should be in place if schools reopen next year. During our discussion it was clear that many of the ideas put forward by participants rely on more funding to be achieved. Spending was also a repeated concern of the parents, teachers and others who responded to our online survey; the word “budget” was mentioned 52 times by respondents, and “funds” or “funding” another 59 times.

Please do send your letters today and share this email with others who care,

Leonie