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REPORTS
The Mayor’s Executive Budget
Recommendations for the Public Schools
On April 26th, the Mayor released his proposed budget for
the city, which will be negotiated with the City Council. By law, the
city’s budget must be adopted by June 30th.
Mayor Bloomberg’s recommendations raise the Department of Education’s
total budget (including city, state, and federal funding) just above the
$13 billion threshold, $13,025,849,562.
When debt service (payments of interest and principal on money borrowed
to make major repairs and build new schools) and pension payments are
included, planned expenditures for public education will exceed $15
billion.
Third-Grade Gates Program
The Mayor has invested substantial resources for his plan to have students
testing at Level 1 on the city’s third-grade math and English tests
repeat the third grade if they are still testing at this level after mandatory
summer school.
- Because there will be an increase in the numbers of children
in third grade, the Mayor is adding $25 million for additional teachers
to keep classes at the same size.
- Intervention programs for retained and low-performing
third graders will be funded with an additional $59 million.
- While the Mayor has added $32 million for summer school
for second and third graders, $57 million is being cut from the summer
school program because it will no longer be mandated for low-performing
students in the other grades (the policy of the Giuliani administration).
Special Education
Planned allocations for special education in the 2004-05 school year have
been reduced from the levels of the adopted budget for the 2003-04 school
year. For this reason, the proportion of the Department of Education’s
budget for special education has shrunk from 13 percent to 11 percent.
Together, these reductions in proposed funding come to $366 million, more
than can be accounted for by a purported 6,000 drop in the numbers of
students in special education. However, the Mayor is proposing to increase
some areas of special education funding. Citywide (UA 321/322), which
serves the most disabled students, currently funded at $535 million, will
go to $605 million next year, a $69 million addition.
The Office of Management & Budget asserts that there are no reductions
in funding for special education students and that these changes in budget
allocations simply reflect the fact that more students are being educated
in general education classrooms. Yet when personnel and other than personnel
allocations for general education (elementary, middle, and high schools
U/A’s 301, 302, 311 & 312) are added together, there is only
a $146 million increase in the Executive Budget for these categories when
the added funds for the third-grade Gates program and reduction in summer
school for the other grades are factored out.
Headcount
The Message of the Mayor contains summary information on the number of
employees in the public school system. See table below for staffing levels:
Since pedagogues include not only teachers and administrators, but also
guidance counselors, school secretaries, and paraprofessionals, it has
always been difficult to verify teacher staffing levels. The one-year
drop in the total number of teachers, 3000, is much smaller than the one-year
drop in the total number of pedagogues, which fell from 123,859 to 109,611,
according to the Message of the Mayor in 2003 and 2004. Most of this 14,248
decline in pedagogues probably stems from the elimination of community
school district and special education positions. The Department of Education
is once again using a headcount system that combines teachers and paraprofessionals,
making it even more difficult to find out how many classroom teachers
there are. Many parents and teachers have complained about the increases
in general education class sizes during the 2003-04 school year. The summary
information in the Executive Budget states that there was only a 1000
decrease in the number of general education teachers. Could this 1.5 percent
decrease in general education teachers have resulted in such widespread
reports of classroom overcrowding? •
| Mayor’s Principal Priorities for
CFE Remedy Funds |
| Career ladder for teachers, expand professional
development for teachers and administrators, create incentive and
merit programs for principals and teachers, and provide more training
and services for parents. This includes $10 million for language translators |
$830 million
|
| Early grade intervention and academic enhancements.
This includes $117 million to reduce class sizes from 25 to 20 in
grades K-3 and from 32 to 28 in middle schools. |
$1.9 billion
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| Universal pre-kindergarten funding to provide
half-day schooling to 35,000 3-year olds and full-day schooling to
75,000 4-year olds |
$542 million
|
| Creation of new small schools; restructure
middle & high schools into small learning communities of 400-
500 students |
$812 million
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| Additional supports for Special Education
students and English Language Learners |
$514 million
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| Comparisons of special education funding
levels |
| Units of Appropriation (Personnel/OTPS)
|
SY 2004 |
SY 2005 |
Difference |
| 303/304 Elementary & middle school
resource & self-contained classes |
$514 million |
$333 million |
-$181 M |
| 313/314 HS resource & self-contained
classes |
$200 million |
$60 million |
-$140 M |
| 323/324 Centrally controlled related services
& school-based evaluations |
$274 million |
$248 million |
-$26 M |
| 325/326 Administration |
$25 million |
$6 million |
-$19 M |
| Comparison of the purported staffing
levels |
| |
2003 |
2004 |
| Total employees |
136,518 |
134,181 |
| Total teachers |
80,000 |
77,000 |
| General education teachers |
63,000 |
62,000 |
| Special education teachers |
14,000 |
15,000 |
| Bilingual teachers |
2,000 |
Not reported |
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