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Dear Neighbor,
Among the many services my office can provide, I am committed to being a source of information for the community and help to provide answers to questions you have about how our city government functions. In recent weeks, there have been a lot of questions surrounding local school budgets and the New York City Department of Education (DOE) budget. Most of our local schools were told they would get less money than in previous years, while some were told they would get more money than last year. These projected budgets have caused much concern and confusion, and rightfully so - it is vital that our children have the resources they need to thrive in educational settings. As a New York City public school special education teacher for 14 years, I know the impact these dollars have on class size, arts programs, and the critical resources our children need to attain the quality education they deserve.
In a previous newsletter, I wrote about some of the systemic flaws in enrollment projection calculations and the Fair Student Funding (FSF) formula. I encourage you to read that if you have not yet done so. In short, projections in many schools are not accurate, and although their budgets will be adjusted based on actual enrollment data, schools are forced to excess teachers and make staffing decisions now, despite the fact that these decisions will not reflect the needs of the schools come September; the FSF formula fails to provide meaningful baseline funding and does not meet the realities of individual schools and individual student need.
Now, I want to make clear the current situation in which we find ourselves, answer some frequently asked questions, and explain what I am doing as your Council Member to ensure that our children and schools have the necessary resources to ensure that every single student in our city is set up for a bright future.
Question: Did the NYC Council vote to reduce my local school’s budget?
Answer: No. In June 2022, the Mayor and City Council agreed to a budget that included historic increased city spending for the DOE, bringing the entire department’s budget to over $31 billion. However, the portion of the Department’s Fiscal Year (FY) 2023 budget allocated directly to schools was $131.5 million less than in the prior year. The DOE stated that this decrease would be achieved through the elimination of 1,778 vacant positions within the Department. It was later revealed that this was not the case.
The City Council, when adopting a budget, must vote on the budget for the entire city, a portion of which is the DOE budget. The vote we take authorizes DOE’s overall budget and level of spending. The City Council does not authorize how the spending is dispersed to individual schools. That decision is ultimately made by the DOE.
It is important to draw the distinction between the DOE budget and an individual school budget, as these two elements are often conflated. The City Council votes for an entire budget, part of which is the DOE budget, but the City Council does not control individual school budgets.
In the first two years of the pandemic, the previous administration used federal stimulus dollars to prevent reductions in school budgets, despite significant decreases in student enrollment. The NYC schools system has seen a roughly 10% decline in Pre-K through 12th-grade enrollment since the beginning of the pandemic. In school district 10, a significant portion of which I cover, we saw enrollment at 87.1% of pre-pandemic enrollment. In contrast to the previous administration, this current administration is leaning heavily on the FSF formula and does not appear to fully be utilizing federal stimulus dollars, as first reported in April. In fact, the administration is reducing FSF allocations by almost half a billion dollars, far more than the amount of savings they requested in the preliminary budget.
Question: Will teachers be fired? Will this save money in the city budget?
Answer: While many individual schools are projected to have lower budgets, teachers are not being fired - they are being excessed. That means they lose their position at their particular school, but do not lose their employment. They will find a position at another school through the open market, and if not, they will be placed in a school in their district. Regardless of what changes happen at an individual school, an excessed teacher will continue to collect a paycheck from the DOE. In other words, the reduction in staffing at an individual school does not produce savings for the Department of Education.
I believe that we will face deeper problems as a result of this confusion. More families will choose to remove their children from the NYC public school system, and more teachers may resign or retire. Worse, college students who are interested in a career in public education may be turned off by how professionals are being treated, and may now decide to do something else, creating a long-term staffing crisis.
Question: What is going on with the court case?
Answer: Over the past few years, the DOE had issued an emergency declaration, negating the need for a Panel for Educational Policy (PEP) vote on the DOE budget before the Mayor submits it to the City Council and the Council approves it. Recently, a judge ruled that the education portion of the NYC budget was invalid because the PEP did not approve the budget before it was sent to the Council. The PEP did ultimately approve the DOE budget after the city budget passed, but the judge ordered that the previous fiscal year’s DOE budget would be in effect until the Mayor and Council amended it. This ruling was subsequently stayed (put on hold) by another judge. While some saw the original ruling as an opportunity to make school budgets whole, there are two glaring issues.
First, unlike the federal government, the city budget must be balanced. If there is a financial change in one area, then there must be changes elsewhere. Second, and perhaps more importantly, regardless of how much money is allocated to the DOE, ultimately, the decision of how much money each school gets lies with the DOE, not with the council. So, even if the Council passes a budget modification (a vote to amend part of the budget), which reprioritizes city funds and increases the DOE’s budget, there is no guarantee that local schools would see increases in their budgets. Additionally, to afford these increases in DOE’s budget, other agencies’ budgets could be affected, potentially decreasing funding for our senior centers, community centers, mental health networks, and violence interrupters, resulting in a decrease in services.
Question: Isn’t there federal stimulus money that has gone unspent?
Answer: We believe so. While some of the stimulus money was spent on school reopenings, academic recovery and the expansion of 3K, the NYC Comptroller’s year-end review of school stimulus spending identified $505.6 million in unspent, uncommitted FY 2022 federal stimulus funds for education. That is why we have been pressing the administration to account for this money and use it to fill the gaps in our school budgets. These federal dollars must all be spent by the end of FY 2025 or be returned to the federal government.
Question: So if the money is restored to the local schools by the administration, will everything be ok?
Answer: Not quite. Long-term structural problems still plague our public education system, and we need to start thinking about the 2023-2024 school year and beyond. The needs of our individual schools will face the city-wide reality of significant declines in overall student enrollment. While the city-wide reductions in enrollment may not speak to the needs of an individual school, policy decisions have to be made now to address these reductions and prepare schools and families for any changes.
A big part of the funding issue is not the total dollar amount allocated to the DOE, but how funds are disbursed. I will continue to advocate for changes to the FSF formula. Principals have also asked that they be given more flexibility with their budgets. We saw glaring examples of this inflexibility of school budgets and federal stimulus money. In some cases, money was earmarked for after-school and weekend programming, but principals could not find staff to run these programs. In other cases, parents were not interested in these programs. If the schools did not spend the money on those particular programs, the money could not be used for other purposes and the schools essentially lost the money. The administration did recently allow money earmarked for tutoring to be used for staff salaries, but in many cases, this accounts for a small portion of school budgets.
Another long-standing issue is the matter of campus high schools. Over the past two decades, large high schools in NYC and particularly in the Bronx, such as John F. Kennedy High School and Walton High School, were broken up into multiple smaller schools, all residing within the same building, or “campus.” JFK was converted from one school into seven, and Walton from one into five. Having taught on both of these campuses, I have seen firsthand the immense problems this presents to the system and to our students. When a student population is too small, it becomes increasingly difficult for a school to hire the right combination of social workers, counselors, and teachers; there is less flexibility in programming for students and teachers; it is less likely that a critical mass of students will exist to populate AP classes, self-contained classes, and arts electives; and individual schools spend inefficiently on administrative staff and tasks. If some of these schools were reunited, schools may run more efficiently and more offerings could be available to our students.
These are just some of the long-term structural and financial problems facing our schools, and it impacts enrollment and programming system-wide and within the DOE. If the DOE continues to struggle, more and more families will leave our school system, creating a death spiral of continuous enrollment loss.
Question: What is Council Member Dinowitz doing about this?
Answer: While the city charter and state law allow the mayor significant budgetary power, there are several steps I have taken and am continuing to take to address needs related to our local schools and school system.
One step relates to direct funding. Over the past two budget cycles, I reached out to every school in the district to determine their budgetary needs. From there, I secured millions of dollars for capital and programmatic investments. The capital dollars I secured went to things like computers, smart boards, new libraries, new bathrooms, air conditioning, lunchrooms, sports facilities, and much more. On the programmatic side, the funding I secured allows schools to have in-school and after-school programs like music, art, ecology, robotics, debate, and more. The list is extensive, but I encourage you to reach out to my office or search the Council website to see where I was able to secure funding for our schools and for community centers, libraries, hospitals, parks, and more.
Another step I am taking relates to policy. I am advocating for citywide changes to the FSF formula and more transparency as it relates to projected enrollments. I have pushed this issue at our oversight hearings and continue to push this issue with the DOE. I have sponsored numerous pieces of legislation that will allow the City Council even greater oversight over the DOE, including a bill that would make school budgets more transparent and accessible. I am also the prime co-sponsor on a bill that will lower class size by amending the city’s health code.
On Tuesday, September 6th, the City Council is scheduled to vote on a resolution, which I have cosponsored, calling on the administration to reverse the cuts, account for unspent federal stimulus dollars, and if necessary, submit to the Council a budget modification.
I am also working to make our public school system more attractive to families. Our students are more than high-stakes tests, and my work has reflected that value. I have fought to save two school gardens, advanced ideas of project-based learning, worked to include Halal food on certain schools’ menus, created connections and fostered relationships between our schools and community institutions, and directly helped numerous families with children with disabilities.
I thank you for taking the time to read this information. As a former public school special education teacher, father of two young children, and a lifelong resident of our district, improving and strengthening our school system is something I am incredibly passionate about. The future of our city depends on the education we provide to our kids.
I will always advocate for you and for our community and be your voice at City Hall. Please continue to reach out to my office with any questions or concerns.
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