Update on final NYC budget and what it means for our schools

Whether the budget that was just passed by the City Council was a good one or not depends on whether you’re looking at the glass half empty or half full.

According to the Council press release, they negotiated the restoration of $100 million in proposed cuts to Fair Student Funding, $11.6 million for the Single Shepherd guidance counselors, $4.8 million for 38 social workers, and $1.8 million for other social-emotional supports for students. The new arrangement also puts School Safety Agents under the authority of the DOE for the first time since Giuliani placed them under NYPD control in 1998, though Mayor de Blasio says the shift will be a gradual, two-year process.

Many significant budget cuts remain, as well as a staffing freeze of teachers and counselors, and it is difficult to know how schools will reopen safely and with adequate support to students given these conditions. See the chart below – adapted from an earlier chart from the City Council– approximating the cuts that appear to remain (aside from an extra $6.6M for social workers and other so far unspecified social-emotional supports):

At the same time, much larger cuts of several billion dollars may occur, leading to actual layoffs if the state doesn’t receive more funding from the feds and/or doesn’t provide more aid via higher taxes on the wealthy and/or the Mayor doesn’t manage to negotiate givebacks from the unions.

And all this is happening in the midst of a pandemic which will necessitate costly measures to protect the safety and health of students and staff, no less create the smaller classes required for social distancing if schools reopen in the fall. A recent analysis from the School Superintendents Association revealed that school districts can expect to spend an additional $490 per student just to purchase cleaning supplies and personal protective equipment, as well as hire more custodial staff and nurses. That means the cost to NYC schools could amount to nearly $500 million.

Speaker Corey Johnson did mention during his press conference that they achieved some significant savings from the cancellation of the bus contracts in April, which we strongly advocated for when it appeared that the DOE was intent on going ahead with these contracts despite the fact that there was no busing happening since schools were closed in mid-March. The cancellation of these contracts should lead to savings of over $600 million, which theoretically could have prevented any cuts to school budgets and instead help pay for additional staffing and health measures -- though clearly that didn’t happen.

In any case, we have to continue pushing for the federal government, as well as state and city officials, to do the right thing for our students, rather than allow them to be endangered by educational and medical neglect.

A message from Parents to Improve School Transportation: Relax about bus strike but not about safety

PIST was an invited guest at the monthly membership meeting of school bus drivers’, escorts’, and mechanics’ Local 1181 ATU on November 22. This was clearly NOT a meeting to hold a strike vote.   The president went over the union’s position on Employee Protection Provisions but no date was set for a strike vote, let alone a strike.

PIST described how parents were made to worry all weekend by media reports--traceable to Mayor Bloomberg—that a school bus strike could or would happen on the 21^st.  On Monday, some students came home with forms requested updated emergency contacts specifically in case of a sudden strike.  President Michael Cordiello replied that never in the history of the local would they strike in the middle of the day and leave children stranded. 

Leaders of PIST and of the Community Education Council 31 in Staten Island are some of the parents who agree that job security for trained, experienced bus workers leads to a standard of quality and stability for our children.  Other special education parent groups are more focused on fighting service cuts disguised as ‘mandate relief’—for which PIST thanks and admires them—or are understandably upset by the prospect of disabled children missing school in the event of any strike. 

Even if one believes the unions are motivated only by self-preservation, aren’t their working conditions still our children’s travel and safety conditions? 

In that auditorium on Tuesday night, the nods and looks of concern on a rainbow of faces created a sense that these workers have much more empathy for school bus families than we ever get from the agencies in charge of pupil transportation.

Meanwhile, a school bus combusted in midtown Tuesday, shortly after breaking down and being evacuated. Thankfully, no one was hurt.  We have to wonder why a bus in such bad shape was on the road in the first place.  If Bloomberg can find $1.3 million to throw at the MTA to counter an undeclared yellow bus strike (NY Times 11/19/11), where is the investment into bus repairs/maintenance?  Where is the leadership to make sure bus evacuation drills occur twice a year as promised by Chancellor’s Regulation A-801? 

Back at the 1181 meeting:  a driver raised that her company had shown a training film that instructed drivers to check their bus battery, etcetera—tasks that should be assigned to a trained bus mechanic instead.  Would an inexperienced, non-union driver feel empowered to question this big company?

PIST thinks parents should take this moment when school busing is in the news to expose the root problems; to seek relief for families coping with bad routes (such as distribution of those alleged already-paid-for Metrocards to people with OPT complaints); to seek the truth about the bus fire and inadequate inspections; to call Bloomberg out for the things that have gone on in OPT; and to not let ourselves be used against a group of people who provide a vital support service to our children’s civil right to an education.  

What do you think?  Tell us at pistnyc@gmail.com or on Facebook at PIST NYC or call 347-504-3310.