In June 2006, the city proposed a $14 billion budget for running the schools in New York City. Parents and teachers are still waiting for the final cut with scepticism.
Even though this year's budget for New York City schools was met with less anger than in recent years, the city's history makes it hard to be optimistic. After the last cuts were made, the proposed budget for last year looked very different. When students went back to school in September, they found that many classes had been cut because of budget cuts. Parents and teachers both caused enough trouble in high schools for many of the programmes to be brought back.
Everyone in the school system in New York City, including parents, knows that the schools don't have enough money, but they don't see much being done about it. Teachers still buy their own supplies, but parents also help out by buying things for the classroom. Even the students don't mind that there are too many people and that the facilities are in bad shape.
Michael Bloomberg, the mayor of New York City, says that since he took office, he has added $2.5 billion to the budget for the city's schools. However, he says that this is not enough. This year's budget for New York City schools isn't much different from last year's. It depends on getting money from somewhere else, which isn't a sure thing, and it makes assumptions that aren't likely to come true, among other problems.
First, schools in New York City Chancellor Joel Klein has confirmed that most of the budget increase will go toward paying for the higher costs of fuel and fringe benefits. He also said that heating and transportation are important for keeping the schools running. Even though the $1 billion increase brings the amount of money per student to $910, not much of it will get to the classroom. Most of it will be used to pay for running costs. This is bad news for teachers and parents who are already struggling to pay for school supplies that should be paid for by the New York City schools.
Second, the proposed budget is based on two assumptions: 1) The New York City schools will get almost $2 billion from Albany for capital expenses because of a lawsuit with the state, and 2) Teachers will agree to a contract with only a small salary increase.
Since the governor is fighting the court's decision, the money that was supposed to come from the state has not been added to the state's budget. Even if the New York City schools win in court, the state will not give them any money for the 2006-2007 school year.
Teachers are not likely to agree to the proposed contract because they and the Council of Supervisors and Administrators, which is made up of about 5,500 principals and other high-level staff, have been working without a contract for the past two years. The United Federation of Teachers has already criticised the mayor for not using the city's $3.3 billion surplus to end the standoff. The mayor says that the extra workers are only needed for a short time and that he wants the contracts to be the same as for other city workers. Since two years ago, the teachers, police, and firefighters have been very against the mayor's contract proposals. This kind of contract for teachers would get rid of many of the job protections that are already in place. For example, it would get rid of seniority rules and make it easier to fire a teacher.
Klein is another problem. People who care about the schools in New York City say that Klein has spent too much money on consultants and expensive bureaucrats who don't know much about education. The vague language of the proposed budget makes it easy for these and other costs to be hidden.
Lastly, the proposed budget for the schools in New York City must make it through the political fights of the city council members. In the past, it has been clear that members lobby for changes and programmes that only help the schools in their own districts, not all schools in New York City.
Even though students' scores on standardised tests went up a lot last year, the New York City schools have a lot of problems to deal with this school year, and it doesn't look like this budget will help. Not a lot of people are hopeful about this proposed budget.
