Top News Stories
Klein urged to seek input on using CFE funds
May 22, 2008 10:42 AM
UFT Vice President Michael Mulgrew speaks at the May 6 press conference.
Parents, teachers, community leaders and UFT officials are calling on Chancellor Joel Klein to work together with them to create a strong citywide plan for spending the $360 million secured last year in the resolution of the Campaign for Fiscal Equity lawsuit and earmarked by the state for six specific purposes.
Concerned that the funds — won after 13 years of litigation — will disappear down the rabbit hole of each school budget and not be spent as intended, they aired their demands at a press conference on the steps of the Tweed Courthouse on May 6.
Of the $622 million in increased state aid to the city for the coming school year, the state mandated that $360 million must be spent on priorities, within the allowable purposes, spelled out in a district “Contract for Excellence.” Those spending priorities are supposed to be based on community input through boroughwide public hearings and reviewed by each Community Education Council. The Department of Education has not met those requirements, indicating instead that it will allow principals to decide how the money is spent.
“We must not waste this opportunity,” UFT Vice President Michael Mulgrew insisted. “That money must be used for what it was intended for: to reduce class size, improve our middle schools and meet the needs of our English language learners.” He urged the DOE to meet those needs by incorporating parent, community and education voices. “We are going to fail,” he warned, “unless the DOE makes a plan with us to target this money.”
Geri Palast, executive director of CFE, said, “The money must not be used to plug holes in school budgets but must be invested strategically.” Citing the crisis in middle schools, she added, “We want to work with the DOE for a citywide plan before the money is spent.”
Chanting demonstrators carried placards warning that “Failing to Plan = Plan for Failure.” Parent Zakiyah Ansari said, “We want input.” She spoke of parent frustration and accused the DOE of “putting the cart before the horse” if it distributes the money without guidelines and without community and parental support.
A week earlier, the UFT and New Yorkers for Smaller Classes had presented evidence that last year’s Contract for Excellence funds that were targeted for class size reductions were spent with little appreciable effect on class size.
Another parent, Lenore Brown, was adamant in her insistence that some of the Contract for Excellence money must be set aside for middle schools.
Referring to school leadership teams and consensus, Councilman Robert Jackson, chair of the City Council Education Committee, challenged the DOE “to roll up your sleeves and join us.” He told a cheering crowd, “It takes all of us to fight against this bureacracy. Without us, they will do what they want — but we won’t let that happen.”
Jose Davila of the New York Immigration Coalition reminded the education activists of all their trips to Albany to win fair funding for city schools. “We want to tell the chancellor,” he said, “to put a brake on spending this money until there is a plan.”
Also attending the press conference were Barbara Gross of the New York City Coalition for Educational Justice and Jaime Estadas of the Alliance for Quality Education.
