Now that city and state budgets are back in the black, the City Council should restore funding for Teacher’s Choice, UFT Vice President Evelyn DeJesus told the Council in budget testimony on March 25.

DeJesus also called on the Council to add funding for community schools and Teacher Centers.

The Council often negotiates increases for specific programs, adding to the mayor’s preliminary budget, which was announced in February.

In her testimony, DeJesus chided Gov. Andrew Cuomo for shortchanging the city by some $2.6 billion owed under the Campaign for Fiscal Equity settlement. “The state’s failure to fund its obligations amounts to a disinvestment in our public schools that, as parents and teachers can tell you, takes a toll,” she said.

Chronic underfunding has led to fewer teachers and larger class sizes, DeJesus said. Class-size reduction, especially in the lower grades, should be a priority and could be funded with the settlement money from the state. The UFT’s proposed tax increase on absentee owners of luxury New York City properties, a tax that the state would have to approve, could also pay to bring class sizes in kindergarten through grade 3 down to no more than 15 children and eliminate the 350-plus trailers now used as “temporary” classrooms, she said.

DeJesus noted that a 2014 UFT survey found that teachers spend an average of $500 a year out of pocket on materials for their students. DeJesus called for another $20 million in Teacher’s Choice funding to reimburse teachers, clinicians, lab specialists and school secretaries well above the amounts they received this school year.

Concerned that funding for Teacher Centers may be eliminated in the state budget, the UFT asked the Council to allocate $20 million to the professional development program. The union is also asking for $1 million to add mental health services in the union’s Community Learning Schools.

About 43 percent of city education funding comes from the state. A final city budget must be in place by July 1.