A protestor at a public school in Queens voices opposition to New York City's plan to reduce school funding for next school year.A protestor at a public school in Queens voices opposition to New York City's plan to reduce school funding for next school year.
Education department officials said some stimulus funding and grants will be added to school budgets soon. Still, some educators warned that, by the time additional money is allocated, it may be difficult to hire teachers back and undo the staffing decisions principals are being forced to make now. On Wednesday, educators across the city handed out fliers at drop-off and pick-up alerting families that the decrease in funds is causing cuts to staff and programs.
“We did not cut the budget for public schools,” he said on Fox 5’s “Good Day New York” last week. “We reallocated the money based on the student population.”Funding for schools comes from different revenue streams. The city has actually increased its contribution to the education department by more than $700 million, but overall funding for the department has gone down by about $1 billion because so much more federal funding was allocated last year.