Massive budget cuts for New York City public schools highlight existing resource gaps

Mayor Eric Adams cut the Education Department budget for this fiscal year by nearly $550 million in November.

By: Lauren Ng

New York City public schools are struggling to provide additional services after Mayor Eric Adams cut $547 million from the Department of Education (DOE)’s budget in November 2023.

Adams justified the proposed cuts, which arrived three months into the school year, with the need to fund the city’s migrant crisis. While the November plan applied to the DOE as a whole, the ability of public schools to adapt to the budget cuts varies widely depending on existing resources, such as Parent Teacher Association (PTA) fundraising, according to New York City Council Member Eric Dinowitz.

“When there’s a financial crisis, some communities are better able to financially handle it than others,” Dinowitz, who sits on the Council’s education committee, said. “So you have a widening of achievement gaps.”

Dinowitz represents the city’s 11th District, where about 80% of students are “economically disadvantaged,” the highest percentage of any borough, he said.

Schools that serve students of color and low-income neighborhoods are hit particularly hard by budget cuts, according to Dinowitz, who was raised in the Bronx.

He also noted additional challenges posed by the expiration of federal Covid funding.

“Language access is something that’s on the chopping block,” Dinowitz said. 

Covid funding provided many resources for New York City public schools, including translation services.

Ee Tay, whose three kids attend Shuang Wen School (P.S. 184), a Chinese dual-language school on the Lower East Side, lamented the effects of the budget cuts. Tay’s oldest son was one of a handful of eighth graders selected to attend a class trip to Taiwan, which was scheduled for February.

“Throughout the summer and the fall, they had been preparing for an interview, and they had to write a little personal statement,” Tay said. “Come December, they were told that because of the budget cut, that money had been frozen.”

P.S. 184 lost its designation as a Title I school — at which low-income students comprise at least 40% of enrollment — this year, according to Tay. The school no longer receives Title I funding and now endures a reduced budget from Adams.

The school directly attributed the trip’s cancellation to Adams’ budget cuts, Tay said. 

While Adams restored a small portion of the budget in January, more than $500 million of the education cuts will remain, according to The New York Times.

The United Federation of Teachers (UFT) — the teachers’ union representing New York City public schools — sued Adams over the budget cuts in December 2023. Additionally, over 900 UFT members lobbied for more school funding and mayoral control restrictions in Albany on March 11, according to Alison Gendar, a UFT spokesperson.

“The city continues to receive additional state education dollars and then uses the increase as an excuse to reduce the investment of city funds in education,” Gendar said.

Dinowitz said he is particularly concerned about the cuts’ effect on student health and well-being.

“We’re looking at reductions to the 3-K program, reductions to community schools, reductions to social workers and nurses in our schools,” Dinowitz said. “I’ve seen during my time in the classroom how beneficial mental health counselors are directly in the school setting.”

Adams’ November plan also included $600 million in DOE cuts for next fiscal year.

“[If a child is] not getting the health support they need,” Dinowitz said, “we have, for budgetary reasons, failed that child.”