Letters 01

EPP December 2001 Letter on BOE's FY 2002 Budget

December 14, 2001

Hon. City Councilmember
New York City Council
City Hall
New York, NY 10007

Dear City Councilmember:

As advocates on behalf of New York City’s public school students, we urge you to support a limited 2.5 percent reduction (or freeze) to the Board of Education’s FY 2002 budget and to attempt to find ways in which even this cut can be reduced. One immediate budget modification that can be done without having to identify new revenue sources is to transfer $80 million from the "Miscellaneous" budget back to the Board of Education’s budget. This amount was taken out of the units of appropriation for instruction and reserved by the Mayor for a plan to privatize 12 percent of the schools on the state’s list of low-performing schools, called SURR schools (Schools Under Registration Review). When the city’s budget was adopted in June, the Council’s rejection of this plan left the $80 million in the "Miscellaneous" budget contingent on a memorandum of understanding that these funds would be allocated to SURR schools on a priority basis. This MOU was never signed. The end result is that funds have been taken out of instruction.

The MOU was unnecessary and does not need to be signed. From the point of view of the Educational Priorities Panel, there was no need to prioritize funding for SURR schools because they currently receive priority funding. SURR schools in the Chancellor’s district receive, on average, $1 million more per school than other schools. SURR schools outside of this district, because they serve large numbers of low-income children, receive proportionately more federal Title 1 funds and proportionately more Special Needs Academic Intervention Services funding (a BOE block grant for high-needs districts and schools) than other schools. In addition, State Education Department policies for SURR schools have required the New York School district to provide smaller class sizes and more experienced teachers to SURR schools.

There is some urgency to this matter. Budget officials at the Board of Education assumed that the $80 million would be returned to the Board of Education so they never adjusted their allocations to the schools. Should this transfer not occur, then the Board of Education’s budget will not only have to absorb the $113 million downward FY ’02 modification, but also an additional $80 million in unavailable funds, which would total $193 million. As it is, mid-year budget cuts are particularly difficult for educational programs to absorb. Given that SURR schools already receive priority funding in New York City, the restoration of the $80 million to the Board of Education budget should be secured by the City Council as soon as possible so that students can be shielded from another round of cuts to their instruction and services.

Sincerely,

Noreen Connell, Executive Director
Marilyn Braveman, Chairperson