In the midst of protests over the expected city budget cuts, city teachers, administrators and politicians are waiting on the mayor’s response to an increase in education aid from the State Legislature. After being hit by $180 million in mid-year cuts this January, the Department of Education expects $500 million more to be slashed from the 2008-2009 city budget.
City educators warned that the toll could be heavy.
“The mid-year cuts meant schools needed to drop new tutoring programs after school and on Saturdays,” said Rose Kern, Staten Island chapter chair for the Council for School Supervisors, as she stood in the rain at a mid-March rally at City Hall.
While additional cuts could mean overcrowded classrooms and slimmer academic options, Mayor Michael Bloomberg (Unaff.) has called the cuts unavoidable. He said he was ethically bound to trim the education budget, since other city agencies are facing reductions of at least five percent.
“We can’t sit here and say one thing is more important than another,” he said on the day of the rally. “Everybody’s going to share the pain in the same sense that everybody shares the rewards.”
According to the Independent Budget Office, a publicly-funded agency that offers non-partisan economic analysis, such sizable cutbacks may not be necessary—or at least not yet.
“We project more revenue than the Bloomberg administration does,” said Doug Turetsky, spokesperson for the IBO. “Though we agree that down the road the city is facing more difficult times, business income tax and personal income tax for 2007 came in pretty strong.”
The state’s Division of Budget insisted it had satisfied its financial responsibility in the enacted state budget.
“We would dispute the way the city views it,” said Division spokesperson Matt Anderson.
The state will provide $644 million in additional aid, bringing the total state aid to $8.33 billion.
“We are still adding money, but it is the city that is cutting,” said Anderson.
Education advocates have also been critical of the mayor’s proposed cuts.
“At the city level, we want the mayor to restore this year’s mid-year cuts as well as next year’s cuts,” said Geri Palast, executive director of Campaign for Fiscal Equity. “If he feels that they cannot restore this year, we want to have a discussion with open books to make sure the cuts aren’t affecting classrooms.”
The Assembly’s plan calls on the city to add $324 million back into next year’s education budget.
“After 12 years of lawsuits and victories in the courts,” said Assembly Education Chair Cathy Nolan (D-Queens) in a statement, “now is not the time for the Bloomberg administration to falter on education funding.”
Assembly Member Linda Rosenthal (D-Manhattan) said that since the state upped the ante, Bloomberg must do the same, or risk losing executive control for the schools in his last year in office.
“It was a blame game, but the city won’t be able to play,” said Rosenthal. “In 2009, the mayor’s executive control of the schools will come up for a vote. If that is going to continue, there’s going to have to be a lot of changes.”
Meanwhile, City Council Member Bill De Blasio (D-Brooklyn) put forward a
resolution to rescind the mid-year cuts and restore next year’s budget. Already, 43 other Council members have signed the resolution. But Council Member Charles Barron (D-Brooklyn) said rallies and resolutions are purely ceremonial.
“Rallies are fine and resolutions are okay for political purposes,” said Barron, the Higher Education Committee chair. “But it’s time for the Council to stand up and show its muscle, and the only way to do that is vote ‘no’ on the budget. We have the power to not pass this.”
Council Member Robert Jackson (D-Manhattan), chair of the Education Committee, agreed that the situation calls for major action and consequences. “I will vote ‘no’ on the budget if they don’t put education money back,” he said.