Councilmembers Demand More Funds for City Schools

By AMANDA RODRIGUEZ

A group of city councilmembers and education advocates on Tuesday demanded an increase in state funding for public schools, charging that city was being shortchanged in comparison to other localities.

In a press conference on the steps of City Hall Councilman Daniel Dromm of Queens described a letter signed by 42 councilmembers to State Legislature demanding a $1.9 billion budget increase for public schools. The letter came the day before the Legislature approves budgets in Albany.

The letter being submitted to the New York State legislature places added pressure on the Campaign for Fiscal Equity (CFE) to close the $2.7 billion gap in New York City. It is stated that the request for a $1.9 billion increase is to restore the many detrimental changes that have occurred in New York City public schools as a result of previous cuts.

“Governor Cuomo has stood the side of Charter schools and is leaving the 97 percent of students in New York City to suffer,” said Natasha Capers, Brooklyn parent and leader with the Alliance for Quality Education. “Schools in my neighborhood are literally falling apart and the lack of aid forces our kids to suffer,”

Dromm echoed this idea.

“This funding is essential to reverse classroom cuts and to begin to make much needed investments in education, as well as to combat the deepening of inequality in our city that is damaging the future of far too many of our children,” said Dromm. “The state had broken its commitment to provide a full CFE funding to New York City”.

“We want the money we are owed, the money we deserved,” said Councilman Ben Kallos of Manhattan.

Over the past five years, classroom cuts have ranged from arts programs, music programs, AP classes, and cutting down libraries among many other vital programs.

A total of 42 councilmembers have signed the letter .

“There is power in numbers, “said Silvia Cervantes, a parent from Queens,
“and we’ve worked very long to ensure that this budget increase actually reaches our children. It is time that education becomes a priority,”