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Budget Deal Boosts School Aid, Gives HA Some Help; Infusion Follows Test Gains
A bid by some Council Members to provide funding to hire another 1,000 cops ultimately failed, however. An unspecified number of Fire Department civilian positions will go unfilled. According to the Council, all schools will open in September with at least the same amount of classroom funding as when they closed last week, excluding normal funding fluctuations due to matters like changing enrollment. When taken in conjunction with state funding, many schools' overall budgets will actually increase. This funding will also become part of schools' baseline budgets, making it less susceptible to future cuts.
Focus on Middle Schools Speaker Quinn and Mayor Bloomberg also announced the creation of two new DOE funding initiatives. The first is a $12-million middle school grant program targeted at 200 of the city's highest-need middle schools. The second is a $7-million fund available to schools with a high number of English Language Learners. The Council and the DOE have also agreed to increase class-size reduction efforts and to make publicly available all their reports to the state DOE on the use of Contract for Excellence dollars, intended to go to at-risk schools. "In this year's budget, we have made some difficult though smart decisions that will help the city through the financial uncertainty ahead, while maintaining essential city services," said Speaker Quinn. "In particular, our children's education remained a priority."
CFE: Right Priorities "New York City will continue to put the education of our children first even in the face of tough economic choices," added Campaign for Fiscal Equity Executive Director Geri Palast. "This budget will keep New York City schools on the road to adequately funding the sound basic education for each public school child required by the constitution and the courts, rather than shamefully turning back the clock on 15 years of CFE litigation and legislation." Teamsters Local 237 President Gregory Floyd said that the HA restorations fell short of what was needed. "It was not enough; however we are grateful that it was something," he said in a June 27 phone interview. "We're just going to have to wait for NYCHA to evaluate the $18 million to the budget and what they will be able to restore." 'More Needed' He noted that with only $18 million offered to ease a $195-million deficit, programs will likely be cut. "More money is needed," he concluded. The budget deal, with its heavy emphasis on the public schools, came three days after Ms. Weingarten said that improvements in city standardized test scores released that day underscored why DOE should not have its schools budget trimmed. The results demonstrated progress at every grade level in English Language Arts and math since last year, outpacing gains by students statewide in every grade except one. The number of students in grades three to eight meeting or exceeding standards rose 9.2 percent in math since last year, and 6.8 percent in English Language Arts over the same time period. Additionally, African-American and Latino students achieved greater gains than their white and Asian peers across the city. 'Can Succeed, Given Resources' "We see quite clearly what we can achieve when our schools get the resources they need," Ms. Weingarten said. "Now, when our kids are doing so well and are striving to do even better, is not the time to pull the rug from under them by cutting school budgets." "We hope these test scores will help convince our elected leaders at City Hall that they should adequately fund our school system in spite of a troubled economy, just as the state has done," she continued. "Working together we are making a real difference in outcomes for New York City's public schoolchildren," Chancellor Joel I. Klein said. "We've changed the situation on the ground, creating the conditions necessary to transform our schools and classrooms - and results for kids. We've set high standards, created strong academic interventions for struggling students, held schools responsible for results, and given educators the tools they need to assess how well they're doing and how well students are progressing." "Our students have made great progress in math and reading, building on the gains of recent years," said Mayor Bloomberg. "Today, they are performing almost on the level of suburban districts, and we're making continued progress closing the shameful achievement gap." "However, while we're proud of these accomplishments, there's still more work to be done," continued the Mayor. "We'll continue to do what is necessary to provide each child with a quality education and to prepare each for the future." Teacher Raises Helped Ms. Weingarten said that a 43-percent increase in Teacher salaries "helped New York City develop and maintain a high-quality teaching force, one of the best we've had in decades," enhancing the quality of education. Ms Weingarten also noted that "hiring certified teachers, pushing for smaller class sizes, allowing time for instructional programs, academic intervention and small-group tutoring of students, as well as the UFT teacher centers," were important factors in increased student performance. Ron Davis, a spokesman for the UFT, said that the results were promising, but that the union's stance on testing remains the same. "The information about performance is not the end-all, be-all of how education should be measured," he said. "Given the variability of the testing, we must wait to see if this improvement trend is also reflected in the National Assessment of Educational Progress Scores," Ms. Weingarten stated, although she was generally optimistic about the results. "The entire city should be very proud because these scores show we are moving in the right direction," she continued, calling it "a great day for New Yorkers." |
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