EPP Information

55% Instruction
(39% General Ed.; 16% Special Ed.)
Funds for elementary and middle schools in community school districts and high schools. Funds for special education instruction and support services. Fringes (health insurance, etc.) of all these employees.

15% Categorial
Special funding programs for additional instruction or services for students at high risk for academic failure, such as children from non-English speaking families and high poverty communities (mostly federal Title 1 and state Extraordinary Needs Aid). Fringes.

17% Operations
Funds for school buses and public transportation passes, school lunch programs, school security, building repairs, electric and heating costs, and leases. Fringes.

5% Private Schools*
The NYC Board of Education budget includes payments for private school tuition for some special education students, for pre-school special education tuition and transportation (almost all private agencies), and for the state's textbook purchasing program for private schools. Also included are funds for the Fashion Institute of Technology.

7% Administration
Funds for community school district administration, high school administration, special education administration, and central administration. Fringes.

*Title 1 funds to private schools and funds for school lunch and transportation for private school students are not included in the "Private School" category, but in the "Categorical" and "Operations" allocations.

Where does the money go?

This is EPP's analysis of Expense Budget Estimate adopted by the NYC Board of Education on 8/20/97, including state aid appropriations subsequent to the adoption of the FY ‘98 city budget. This budget does not include pension or debt service payments. Fringes are shown as a separate allocation in the BOE budget, similar to the practice of other agencies in the city. EPP has reallocated these fringe costs in order to provide a more understandable analysis of the distribution of resources in the public school system.

How big are the cuts?
Tally sheet of New York City budget cuts to the public schools (on the basis of the adopted city budget, rounded to the nearest million)
1990-91 to 1993-94 School Years: $1,082 Million ($1.1 Billion)
1990-91 School Year	218 million
1991-92 School Year	444 million
1992-93 School Year	219 million
1993-94 School Year	201 million
1994-95 to 1996-97 School Years: $1,603 Million ($1.6 Billion)
1994-95 School Year 548 million
1995-96 School Year 754 million
1996-97 School Year 301 million
1997-98 School Year 0 million
Total Budget Cuts over 8 Years: $2,685 Million ($2.7 Billion) During the same period, student enrollment in the New York City public school system increased from 949,929 pupils to 1,064,668 - by 114,739 or 12 percent. How do public school resources for students in NYC compare to other parts of the state? In the 1995-96 school year, according to the State Education Department's latest Analysis of School Finances report (Tables 12-II & 13-I), average expenditures per pupil were:
In New York City	$8,065
In the rest of the State	$9,884.
This $1,536 difference in per-pupil resources means that for a class of 25 students, schools in the rest of the state have, on average, spent $38,400 more than schools in New York City. This also means that if the New York City school district had the same resources as the average for school districts in the rest of the state, its budget for the 1994-95 school year would have been $9.955 billion, not $8.375 billion. This $1,819 difference in per-pupil resources means that for a class of 25 students, schools in the rest of the state have, on average, spent $45,475 more than schools in New York City. This also means that if the New York City school district had the same resources as the average for school districts in the rest of the state, its budget for the 1995-96 school year would have been $10.4 billion, not $8.5 billion.