Fight the mayor's budget cuts

In his latest attack on our school system, Mayor Adams announced a plan to slash 5% of the DOE’s overall budget. 

The mayor's unacceptable cuts to school funding include: 

• $120 million in cuts to 3K/pre-K programs
• $286 million in cuts to funded DOE positions
• $96 million in cuts to after-school, substitutes, per-session pay and Summer Rising
• Cuts to hours, days and ages for Summer Rising
• $109 million from 653 schools due to enrollment

Then he announced he’s moving forward with an additional 5% cut and asked city agencies to submit plans for those cuts. He has threatened to make a third round of cuts of equal size before June. We won’t stand for this. No mayor has tried to slash the city budget when the city’s finances are in such good shape. It’s just plain unacceptable.

• On Dec. 21, the UFT, along with individual teachers, filed suit in Manhattan State Supreme Court to stop these cuts. 
• Read UFT President Michael Mulgrew's op-ed in the New York Daily News about the budget crisis. 
• Read Michael Mulgrew's op-ed in the New York Daily News calling for budget reform. 

Take action by telling your City Council representative to stand up for our kids. The City Council has the ability to intervene, but so far they have failed to act. We also need to let the public know about the real damage that the mayor’s budget cuts will do to our schools and our school communities.

These cuts to school funding are driven by City Hall's false political narrative that New York City is about to fall off a fiscal cliff. City revenues are, in fact, higher than expected, the city’s reserves are at a near-record high, and state aid has increased.

The influx of asylum seekers has cost the city money, but the mayor has exploited that issue to vastly inflate city expenses for the next four years. All these cuts to school funding will set us back at a time when we are finally addressing a decades-long inequity by lowering New York City class sizes.

We will not allow the mayor to perpetrate this fraud on our city. We must mobilize to fight these damaging cuts and expose their harm to our students.

Additional cuts based on enrollment

On top of his 10% cut to the DOE’s overall budget, Mayor Adams is clawing back $109 million from schools where enrollment decreased over July projections. That means 653 schools — 43% of all schools — will be hit with another set of midyear budget cuts. It’s the first time since 2019 that a mayor did not hold schools harmless for enrollment decreases.