The Mayor has proposed a 3% cut in the overall DOE budget next year, with more than $280 million of these cuts directed towards schools. And yet it is clear that schools will need more funding next year to ensure the healthy and safety, as well as the smaller classes needed for social distancing and enhanced instruction.

A recent cost analysis from the School Superintendents Association and the Association of School Business Officials concluded that school districts can expect to spend an additional $490 per student just to cover costs associated with hand sanitizer, disinfectant wipes and other cleaning supplies, protective gloves and masks , and additional custodial staff and nurses. Given that NYC has more than one million public school students, that means that nearly $490 million extra may be required.

And that’s not counting the additional teachers necessary to provide instruction either remotely or in-person, and extra counselors to offer the emotional support to students, so critical given the disruption and distress that so many students have experienced during the Covid pandemic.

Please send a letter to the Mayor de Blasio and Chancellor Carranza to urge them not to allow the DOE budget to be cut next year, as the Mayor has proposed; and that instead, the bulk of whatever savings from cutting the NYPD budget should be invested in more teachers, counselors, nurses, custodial staff as well as purchasing the supplies necessary to ensure that our children can go back to school safely next year and with the full academic and social-emotional support they will need. Funding should also be used from the more than $600 million saved when DOE cancelled busing in mid-March.

Thanks!