NYC Public School Parents: City Council hearings :More cuts to schools and even larger classes next year?

NYC Public School Parents: City Council hearings :More cuts to schools and even larger classes next year?:

City Council hearings :More cuts to schools and even larger classes next year?

by Leonie Haimson

Me testifying with other advocates; credit CM Jackson who tweeted this

Yesterday the NYC Council Education committee held preliminary hearings on the mayor’s proposed education operating budget.  Here is a good report from NY1, here is the analysisof the budget by Council staff; here ismy testimony [also shown below].  The proposed operating budget for next year, despite an overall increase in spending would cut schools by another $64 million, with $182 million cut to general education instruction, leading to a projected loss of 2,570 teachers and even higher class sizes in the future. 

Though Chancellor Walcott kept repeating that in the final proposed budget, he expects school budgets to be flat rather than cut, even a flat budget would still likely to lead to a sharp loss in general education teachers and continued class size increases, since the costs  of programs and services go up each year, as well as the