Initial school budgets for next year are $824 million less than their total budgets this year; check out your school’s budget here!

Though the DOE claims that there are no cuts to schools’ initial budgets for next year compared to their initial budgets this year, their total Galaxy budgets are $824 million less than they were at the end of this year, according to our analysis as of June 14th.

Check out that link for a spreadsheet where you can see the difference in funding for your school, as well as by School district and Council district.  You can also use the Galaxy look-up tool here.

Below is a summary table:

As of June 14, two days ago, 86% of schools had budgets for next year that were less than this year’s total budgets by an average of $645,406, or 8.1%.

We have already heard from several schools that they will be forced to excess teachers next year.

In addition to these lesser funding amounts, some of which may be made up over the summer and the course of the school year, many schools are also facing serious cuts in budget lines that can be used to pay teachers, offset by allocations that are far more restrictive and that cannot be used for the same purposes.

Moreover, schools may have to give back funding mid-year if their enrollment is less than projected, and most are not expected to receive the same level of funding over the course of the year, as more budget allocations have been made earlier this year than in years past.

Finally, the DOE also approved plans to make huge cuts of $2.3B to the capital plan that will slash the number of new school seats by 38%, just when more space is needed for class size reduction and to meet the caps in the new class size law.

Please send a letter to your council member today  to urge them: don’t allow cuts to school budgets and the capital plan!