Lawsuit filed by UFT to block Mayor's budget cuts to education

Yesterday, a lawsuit was filed by the UFT, stating that the Mayor's proposed cuts to education violate two state laws -  the Contracts for Excellence law, which specifically says additional state funds awarded under the program must be "used to supplement, and not supplant funds allocated by the district." And yet these cuts have been imposed despite the DOE receiving an additional $500 million this year in C4E funds - the third phase in of more than $1.3 billion over the last three years, meant to be invested in improving  classroom conditions including lowering class sizes. Instead, class sizes have increased the last two years. Class Size Matters and AQE cited this issue in our letter to the State, pointing out this supplanting and urging them to require DOE to come up with a corrective action plan on class size. 

The other state law these cuts appear to violate is Education Law § 2576, which mandates that the city cannot cut spending on K12 education compared to the prior year, unless the city has suffered an overall decline in revenue, which has not occurred.  In  fact, the city anticipates an even higher surplus this year than last. 

The UFT press release is below, along with two charts shown at the press conference. The first is self-explanatory, but the second chart entitled "Education City Funds as Percentage of Overall City Budget Funds" is a bit confusing.  I was told by a UFT staffer that this chart shows how NYC spending on education has declined as a percentage of its overall spending on all city agencies.  Newsclips about the lawsuit at Chalkbeat, Daily News, NY Post, NBC News and elsewhere.

Teachers Sue to Halt Adams Budget Cuts to Education

 

The United Federation of Teachers, joined by individual teachers, today filed suit in Manhattan State Supreme Court to stop the Adams administration from cutting as much as $2 billion from city schools.

 

The lawsuit charges that as the state increased education funding to the city's public schools, New York City illegal reduced its contribution to education.

These cuts came, according to the lawsuit, "at a time when the City collected nearly $8 billion more in revenue last fiscal year than was anticipated, and when the City’s reserves of over $8 billion are at a new record high.”

 

In November the Adams administration announced cuts of nearly $550 million in the current fiscal year and plans for further reductions that could amount to $2 billion.  The cuts announced in November have already affected the universal pre-K initiative, current after-school and planned summer school programs, along with computer science instruction, special education, and other services.    

 

The legal filing says that the administration's claim that dealing with asylum seekers sill cost $11 billion over the next two years is "an unverified estimate."  That cost estimate has been challenged by lower projections from both the city's Independent Budget Office and the City Comptroller.

 

Describing the administration’s statements of a fiscal crisis resulting from the asylum seekers as “a false narrative,” the lawsuit says “the law does not permit school funding to be used as a political bargaining chip; and cutting essential services to the City’s schools is not a substitute for the mayoral leadership and advocacy on behalf of New Yorkers needed to obtain federal and state support."

 

UFT President Michael Mulgrew said, “The administration can’t go around touting the tourism recovery and the return of the city’s pre-pandemic jobs, and then create a fiscal crisis and cut education because of its own mismanagement of the asylum seeker problem.  Our schools and our families deserve better.”

 

The lawsuit cites two provisions of state law:  a requirement known as “maintenance of effort” that is part of Albany’s mayoral control legislation for New York City schools; and provisions of the state’s “Contract for Excellence” program.

 

According to the lawsuit, the maintenance of effort provision “prohibits the City from reducing spending in its schools from the level provided in the preceding year unless overall City revenues decline.”

 

The city’s contribution to the education budget for fiscal year 2023 was $14.5 billion, while the adopted budget for fiscal year 2024 was reduced to $14.1 billion. By January, further cuts under the Mayor’s plan will reduce the city’s contribution in FY2024 to $13.9 billion. City revenues – not counting state and federal aid -- grew $5 billion last year.

 

Under the state’s Contract for Excellence, local school districts must use new state funds to supplement local spending for education, but not to replace local efforts.  The lawsuit claims that the administration’s budget cuts will mean that state funds will end up supporting city education programs, in effect supplanting with state funds the programs that the city has refused to pay for.

 

According to the lawsuit, the cuts also undermine students’ rights to “a sound basic education” as provided for under New York State’s constitution. 

 

The lawsuit asks the court to find that the Mayor’s recent and planned budget cuts violate the New York State Constitution and state law and order the administration to restore education funding to the $14.5 billion amount that the city appropriated in fiscal year 2023.

 

A copy of the lawsuit is available here: https://files.uft.org/mulgrew-v-cityofny.pdf

 

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Time sensitive! Check out letter to DOE & SED on NYC's Contract for Excellence "plan" and send your own comments by Jan. 17!

Check out the letter below from the Education Law Center, Alliance for Quality Education and Class Size Matters on the inadequate DOE proposed Contract for Excellence plan for the current school year, which is not aligned with the law, as well as the faulty schedule of hearings and public comment which take place long after the funding has already been spent.  

Please send your own letter to DOE and the State officials in charge of approving or rejecting the plan no later than Jan. 17, by clicking here. 

If you prefer to send in your own comments separately, the DOE C4E proposed “plan” is posted here, and the address to send comments to is ContractsForExcellence@schools.nyc.gov

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January 13, 2022

To the NYC Department of Education and NY State Education Department officials in charge of NYC’s proposed Contracts for Excellence plan for the 2021-2022 school year:

We have great concerns about DOE’s failure to allocate a single penny out of its targeted funds towards class size reduction in their proposed plan, even though in 2003, the State’s highest court in the Campaign for Fiscal Equity case said that class sizes in NYC schools were a systemic problem that robbed NYC students of their constitutional right to a sound, basic education.  Class size reduction is one of only a handful of reforms proven to provide real equity by narrowing the achievement/opportunity gap between racial and economic groups.  Smaller classes have been shown to result in higher test scores, better grades, more engaged students, and fewer disciplinary referrals – especially for those students who need help the most.  And yet class sizes in the NYC public schools have increased since the Court of Appeals issued this decision.

We also question why the DOE claims that they received no more C4E funds this year, given that NYC schools are receiving  $530 million in additional state foundation aid during SY 2021-22, increasing to $1.3 billion annually over next three years, to fulfill the goals of the CFE lawsuit. 

We oppose the fact that DOE has informed principals that if they choose to use these funds in the category of class size reduction, they can be used to maintain current class sizes or limit class size increases.  Maintaining and/or minimizing increases in class size would not provide any progress towards the smaller classes that NYC students need and deserve, according to the state’s highest court. 

Another persistent problem with the DOE’s plan is their insistence that they can use these funds to supplant or fill in holes created by the city’s own tax levy cuts, as stated in their proposed plan and their budget allocation memo, even though supplanting is specifically prohibited in the C4E law.  Again, it would make no sense to allow state funds to be used where the city itself has made budget cuts, which would also mean no progress or improvement in terms of providing equitable learning conditions for NYC students.  If the State is allowing the city to use these funds to supplant its own support for staffing or for other critical programs, the State should specify the language in the C4E law or the regulations which would allow this.

Finally, the timing of public hearings and comments occurs too late in the year to make any difference, and the state’s approval process of the proposed plan is meaningless since these funds have long been spent. The DOE must be required to hold hearings and schedule the public comment period in the spring, with the submission of the plan by July 1, to ensure that there is meaningful public input into the spending of these funds, and that the plan complies with the language and the intent of the C4E law. 

As it stands, year after year, the DOE has ignored the input of parents and teachers on this issue.  Every year that the DOE’s surveys have been administered, smaller classes have been the top priority of K12 parents when asked what changes they would like to see in their children’s schools. According to a UFT teacher survey, 99% NYC teachers responded that class size reduction would be an effective reform to improve NYC schools, far outstripping any other proposal.  And yet DOE refuses to follow through on a critical reform that we know for sure would lead to improved student outcomes, especially for children of color, English Language Learners, students with disabilities and those from low-income families.

 

Yours sincerely, 

 

Leonie Haimson, Executive Director, Class Size Matters

Wendy Lecker, Senior Attorney, Education Law Center

Marina Marcou-O'Malley, Policy Director, Alliance for Quality Education