Students, Parents, Advocates and Elected Officials Call for Education Justice Budget Accountability from the City Council and Mayor

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 6.28.21     

 

Kaliris Salas-Ramirez (ksalasramirez@gmail.com;718-704-7387)

Leonie Haimson (leoniehaimson@gmail.com; 917-435-9329)

Kate McDonough (katem@dignityandrights.org; 917-617-1927)

Zakiyah Ansari (zakiyah@aqeny.org; 917-309-5742)

 

NEW YORK, N.Y. (June 28, 2021) — As Mayor de Blasio and the New York City Council enter the final days of negotiating a city budget that will greatly impact New York City’s education system, state legislators and education justice advocates gathered today at City Hall to demand that the city invest in an education budget that truly supports the well being of students and school communities. 

  

The 2021-22 school will kick off with a record high number of new resources for students in New York City. This includes $7 billion in one time funding from the federal stimulus to help students and schools recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. And New York State will be investing $1 billion in state funds to New York City public schools over the next 3 years as it fully funds the state’s Foundation Aid formula.

 

The Mayor’s proposed education budget falls painfully short and does not deliver on education justice. In a time when we are healing from the collective trauma of the pandemic in a city that never truly funded public schools, students, parents, educators, advocates and elected officials stand united in the call for a just and accountable education budget. 

Among the attendees of today’s press conference were State Legislators Senator Robert Jackson, Assemblymember Jessica Gonzales Rojas, Senator Jabari Brisport, Assemblymember Khaleel Anderson, Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani and Assemblymember Amanda Septimo; as well as organizations including the Alliance for Quality Education, Community Education Council D4, PRESS NYC, Education Council Consortium, Coalition for Educational Justice, Coalition for Asian American Families and Children, New Settlement Parent Action Committee, New Yorkers for Racially Just Public Schools, Class Size Matters, Advocates forChildren, New York Immigration Coalition, Dignity in Schools Campaign-NY, EduColor, NYC Opt Out and the Coalition for Community School Excellence.

Some of things that we want to highlight from our proposed budget:

• $445 million: Class size, Infrastructure and Tech: We need real investments in infrastructure and technology like: reducing class size, universal broadband and access to technology
• $559 Million: Supportive Schools: We need to immediately remove police from schools and invest in real dollars into Community Schools, Citywide Restorative Justice, Expanding Access to Social Emotional Supports and Librarians. 
• $1 Billion: We need a real investment in Culturally Responsive Education 
• $705 Million: Healthy and Safety Investments: Nurses, COVID Testing/Vaccine Delivery and early screening for dyslexia
• $1,000,000,178: Specialized Support: Devoted resources for Data Disaggregation, Support students with Disabilities, Student in Foster Care, English Language Learners and immigrant families.  
  

"In the recently enacted state budget, we committed the billions required to fully fund CFE requirements over the next 3 years. It was a massive battle to win this money for students. Advocates, parents, teachers, students, and legislators fought for decades to finally push this over the finish line. We've come so far. We need City Hall to ensure that the funding is delivered equitably throughout NYC. Our students deserve the best,” said Senator Jabari Brisport.

“This Spring, we in Albany passed a State budget providing an unprecedented level of support for lower education by providing $3.1 billion in total School Aid, including close to $1.4 billion Foundation Aid increase. Now we need to make sure the City Budget steps up and allocates these funds to decrease class size, offer social emotional support to students, and make sure our schools provide the services necessary for multilingual students to thrive,” said State Senator Brad Hoylman.  

State Senator Robert Jackson said, “Now that we have finally won the full funding of our public schools through the 3-year Foundation Aid phase-in, it’s time to make sure we spend it right. Students, parents, educators, and school community members know best how these funds should be invested—smaller class size, more community schools, citywide restorative justice, culturally responsive and sustaining education, support for our students with disabilities and our English Language Learners, and so much more.” Senator Jackson added,  “With all this funding and all these priorities, accountability will be crucial. I urge my colleagues in the City Council to be proactive about keeping the Mayor and Tweed on track. Rely on the ideas coming out of this strong network of education activists and listen to parents’ and parent leaders’ issues and concerns. Build them into your budget, so the DOE has a roadmap to follow to achieve equity and justice for all students.”

  

"It has taken decades to ensure that the state pays its debts to students across this city, but we finally won that battle this year — securing a commitment to fully fund foundation aid over the next three years. We did not spend every ounce of our energy fighting Governor Cuomo's politics of austerity only to lose the battle for budget justice at City Hall. This is a battle that has ramifications across our city and in the heart of my neighborhood, as the City proposes more than $400,000 in cuts to Long Island City high school — cuts that would pull the rug out from underneath our students who need the most support. In the words of Zone 126 executive director Anju Rupchandani, ‘They are robbing Peter to pay Paul.’ That ain't right and we won't stand for it,” said Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani.

  

"New York City public school students have just completed what is likely the most challenging year of their academic careers, with strains on their social-emotional development and physical well-being. The COVID crisis exposed and exacerbated existing inequities across school communities: the students with limited access to support struggled the most to adjust to the new academic landscape. It is vital that in the budget, the City closes the gaps in schools for technology, academic and social-emotional support, smaller class sizes, and specialized supportive services delivered in a culturally sensitive manner. I was proud to fight to pass a New York State Budget that provides full funding for Foundation Aid. The City budget must properly allocate federal and state funds to tackle economic and racial inequalities in the school system," said Assemblymember Linda B. Rosenthal, Chair of the Assembly Committee on Social Services. 

“We must continue to move forward on our promise to create a more equitable future for the children of New York City. That means ensuring schools have the immediate funding and resources they need to prosper after the pandemic, as well as the longer-term investments in technology and infrastructure required for continued growth and development,” said Assemblymember Amanda Septimo. “I proudly stand with my fellow state legislators and education justice advocates today to demand a more just and accountable education budget for NYC schools”.

Leonie Haimson, Executive Director of Class Size Matters said, “Smaller classes have been the top priority of parents on the DOE’s own surveys, and will be needed next year more than ever before, given the requirement for social distancing and the close academic and motional support students will need after a year and a half of remote learning. The Mayor has long promised to lower class size once our schools receive full funding from the CFE lawsuit.  Now that our city has that funding, he has no excuses left to deny our kids the smaller classes they need and deserve.”

“The City this week will pass a budget that will affect New Yorkers during these uncertain times of a pandemic,” said Jolie Santiago, youth leader with Make the Road New York and Dignity in Schools Campaign - NY. “As a student in a NYC public high school I want to make sure the budget reflects our demands to fully fund restorative justice, provide funding to expand social and emotional support and to divest from school policing by rejecting any new school safety agent hires.” 

“Young people need the wraparound services provided by Community Schools this year more than ever. Community schools disrupt the oppressive patterns of systemic racism that perpetuate de-prioritization and underinvestment in economically distressed communities. They level the playing field so that all children in NYC can have a better chance to thrive and succeed. We are thrilled to see such a historic investment in community schools being made by NYC, and the Coalition for Community Schools Excellence is urging sustainability and sufficient funding of the initiative now and going forward to support the expansion,” said Terrence Winston from Coalition for Community Schools Excellence.

"Although NYC and NYS are rapidly reopening; many NYC students and their families are still experiencing lack of support and services resulting from the COVID 19 pandemic  We appreciate the NYS legislators voting to fully fund 100% NYC schools and the federal stimulus for the DOE but the real investments are not in their plan: CRE, Language Justice, Restorative Justice, Community Schools, Social Workers, Family and Community Engagement and Healing Centered Schools. Now is the time Leave no gap unaddressed,” said Amy Tsai, New Settlement's Parent Action Committee.

"With the DOE receiving $7 billion in federal COVID-19 relief funding, the Mayor and City Council must deliver on a budget that invests in effective academic and social-emotional support, including specialized support for students with disabilities, English Language Learners, and students who are homeless, in foster care, or in juvenile detention who were among the students hardest hit by the educational disruption of the past 15 months,” said Randi Levine, Policy Director, Advocates for Children of New York.

“Budgets are a reflection of values. Right now the city is signaling that they value policing over the wellbeing of our students,” said Kate McDonough, Director Dignity in Schools Campaign NY. “We have the money, now is the time to fully fund restorative justice, expand social and emotional support and to create police free schools.”

“Budgets reflect priorities and values. This year’s budget must prioritize the needs of ELLs, students in temporary housing, and students with disabilities, who have long not been prioritized, but even more so in the past 18 months. What do they need? Smaller classes, culturally responsive leadership, pedagogy, and curriculum, tech equity and truly safe, healing centered school spaces. All students will benefit from being known by teachers, having their schools be humane, and their cultures and their friends' cultures included in their school experience. We shouldn’t have to ask for what is logically what the budget should be about. If you truly listen to Black, Latinx and immigrant families, families with students with disabilities, you will KNOW what we need to see in the budget,” said Dr. Kaliris Salas, steering committee member PRESS NYC and president of CEC4.   

“When it considers the DOE budget, we challenge the city to center children’s needs first. Children need the services provided by social workers, nurses, librarians. They need access to technology and well ventilated buildings; curriculum that sustains and motivates; approaches to teaching and learning that stimulate curiosity, collaboration, and exploration. Standardized testing, whether high-stakes or “dipstick,” does not center children’s needs in these ways, and yet the existing budget proposal would squander nearly half a billion dollars for standardized “assessments.” If educators are to truly and holistically determine their students’ needs, they must cultivate trusting relationships--cue smaller class sizes--and be free to draw on their professional expertise. Spending hundreds of millions to dole out Scantron sheets or to park students in front of computers where they follow the prompts of generic and, too often, shoddy software programs may help bureaucrats populate spreadsheets, but does little for the advancement of individual children,” said Kemala Karmen, parent, co-founder NYC Opt Out.

We all demand budget justice, as we fight for our city! 

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Parent sues City Hall for refusing to release unredacted decision memo on class size

Decision memo p.2

Update: Tomorrow, Wed. May 15 at 2:30 PM at the NY Supreme Court, 60 Centre St., Rm. 418, Judge Arthur Engeron will hear arguments in this lawsuit vs NYC for redacting nearly the entire City Hall decision memo on why the Mayor rejected the Blue Book Working Group recommendations to align school capacity with smaller classes.

For immediate release: July 17, 2018

For more information contact: Leonie Haimson; leoniehaimson@gmail.com; 917-435-9329.

On Monday, July 16, 2018, Brooke Parker, a NYC public school parent, filed a lawsuit against the Office of the Mayor of the City of New York, challenging the almost complete redaction of a City Hall Decision Memo that contained a discussion of the reasons for the city’s rejection of several recommendations of the Blue Book Working Group, including a proposal to align the school capacity formula with smaller class sizes.  She is represented in court by Laura D. Barbieri, Special Counsel of Advocates for Justice, a pro-bono law firm.

Brooke is also a member of NYC Kids PAC, which had sent a candidate survey to Bill de Blasio when he first ran for Mayor.  In June 2013, his campaign returned the survey, in which he promised to  “Reform the blue book formula so it more accurately reflects overcrowding and incorporates the need for smaller classes.”

In February 2014, his newly-appointed Chancellor Carmen Farina appointed a working group to come up with proposals to improve the accuracy of the formula used to devise school capacity and utilization. The working group contained administrators, teachers and parents, and was co-chaired by Lorraine Grillo, the President of the School Construction Authority and Shino Tanikawa,  a parent leader and then-President of the Community Education Council in District 2 in Manhattan.

As explained by a NYC DOE spokesperson, “"Over the last decade, communities across the city have been cut out of decision-making processes that undermined the voices of educators and families. That approach is now gone—and we're replacing it with one that reflects a genuine desire to engage with communities.  With new leadership that will listen, it's a new era for our system. Families and educators need to know that we're going to seek their feedback and engage with them as much as we can."

The Blue Book Working Group made its first round of proposals that were accepted by the DOE in June 2014, including that trailers would no longer be counted in estimating school capacity.  In December 2014, the Working Group proposed thirteen more changes to the formula, including that the DOE should align the school capacity formula to the smaller class sizes in their original, state-approved Contract for Excellence class size reduction plan.  This would require a formula that assume no more than 20 students per classroom in grades K-3, 23 students in grades 4-8 and 25 students in high school, to ensure adequate space to lower class size to those levels. 

On July 28, 2015, without explanation, the City sent an email to reporters, in which the seven recommendations that were accepted were noted, as well as three proposals it would “study.” The email omitted any mention of the three proposals it had rejected outright, including the one that several members of the Working Group said was the most important: to align school capacity with smaller classes.

As Lisa Donlan, a member of the BBWG and the President of the Community Education Council in District 1 said at the time, “Certainly for me and for many of us, the class size issue was the biggest issue that we felt would have the greatest impact on bringing us to painting an accurate picture of reality and making sure that all kids got access to an adequate education — hands down.”

When reporters asked why the City had rejected the proposal on class size, the only answer offered by a Department of Education spokesman was that schools would "continue to work toward this critical goal" of reducing class sizes.

Following up on an earlier Freedom of Information request by Leonie Haimson of Class Size Matters, Brooke Parker filed a FOIL request in on January 24, 2018 seeking “The City Hall 2015 decision memo about which proposals of the Blue Book working group to accept or reject, with the reasons for this decision included.” 

On February 2, 2018, the Mayor’s office sent in response an eight-page document entitled “Decision memo” that was almost completely blacked out, with no mention of the proposals rejected and no information provided on why certain proposals were accepted and others not.  The rationale offered for the redactions was that the items redacted were “inter-agency discussions” and thus exempt from FOIL, pursuant to Public Officers Law § 87(2)(g).  

Yet this law also states that any “final agency policy or determinations” are not exempt from FOIL, as this memo certainly was.  It also makes clear that any inter-agency materials that contain factual data or instructions to staff that affect the public are not exempt, and it is extremely unlikely that no data or facts were cited in the discussion of these decisions. Ms. Parker appealed the redactions to the City, and on March 15, 2018, Henry T. Berger of the Mayor’s Office responded, “Your appeal is denied because I have determined that the redactions were proper.”  Thus, she had no further option but to file an appeal in court.

As Ms. Parker points out, “The decision made by the Mayor’s office to reject the recommendation of the Blue Book working group to align school capacity with smaller classes was terribly unfortunate, and will make it far more difficult to achieve the smaller classes that NYC children need to receive their constitutional right to a sound basic education, according to the State’s highest court in the CFE case.  But then to suppress any of the reasons for this decision and black out the entire discussion explaining the reasons for it makes the original decision even worse.“

Leonie Haimson, Executive Director of Class Size Matters, adds: “When he was running for office, the  Mayor promised parents that he would reduce class size and align the school capacity formula with smaller classes.  He also promised to bring more transparency and community involvement to decision-making, especially when it came to our schools.  He has so far failed at all three.  Hopefully, the Court will agree that his administration can no longer hide their damaging decisions in a flurry of redactions, but will have to spell out the reasoning behind them.  New York City parents and other stakeholders deserve no less.“

The verified complaint is posted here.

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