We have a summary of the latest on the parent-teacher lawsuit to try to get the City Council to take a second vote to hopefully eliminate school budget cuts.
This is from from City & State:
In a setback to New York City Mayor Eric Adams’ ongoing defense of his school budget, a Manhattan judge on Friday vacated the city’s spending plan for the Department of Education, ordering the City Council and Adams’ office to pass a new, amended budget.
Judge Lyle Frank’s decision in Manhattan Supreme Court sided with the educators and parents who sued the city, arguing that state law was violated when the council voted on the overall city budget without having the education budget first approved by the Panel for Education Policy. The suit comes on the heels of a long, bitter fight and casts further uncertainty on how much money individual schools will have to spend with students set to return to classrooms in September.
“Students, teachers, and parents need finalized budgets to ensure they are on track for a smooth opening next month,” a City hall spokesperson wrote in a statement provided to City & State. “We are disappointed in the judge’s ruling, and will be taking immediate steps to appeal.” Sure enough, an attorney for the city’s Law Department filed a notice of appeal Friday morning. The City Council did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The City of New York was named as a defendant in the suit, along with the Department of Education and Schools Chancellor David Banks.
Here is great coverage of yesterday's court action and rally from Leonie Haimson.
One never knows how an appeal will go but Adams should lose because the law says the Panel for Educational Policy needs to vote on the education budget before the City Council and tbat didn't happen. A phony emergency is not a very strong argument.
I think this whole drawn out battle by the mayor to cut school funding no matter the costs shows beyond any doubt (not that there was much doubt before) that teachers and the Union are not working with a pro-public education mayoral administration.
Many including Michael Mulgrew warned about Adams when he was running in the Democratic primary for mayor. Adams was funded by pro charter enemies of public education. Mulgrew then reversed position after Adams won the primary and endorsed Adams for the general election. What exactly did that get us? Adams bringing in Bloomberg era Dan Weisberg as First Deputy Chancellor just confirmed that this was not going to be a pro-teacher leadership. This drawn out battle to cut school budgets should not be a surprise.
A real union would now urgently be planning to mobilize for what could be a very difficult year ahead with a contract expiring next month. The UFT is up against a mayor who is going to such great lengths to cut school budgets. You think he's going to be negotiating a contract with favorable terms for UFTers in particular or City workers as a whole? I did get news that the UFT did send a few people to the rally yesterday against the cuts. That's about the best we can expect I guess.
$38B a year for students to pass while not attending and graduate unable to write a coherent sentence. Yup, need more money.
ReplyDeleteWe endorsed a devil and we knew it.
ReplyDeleteAnd, yet, you stay in the union.
DeleteReductive and pointless.
ReplyDeleteLeonie Haimson
ReplyDeleteJudge restores NYC education funding but Adams appeals decision despite his statement that he would follow court decision - another good story by @KalaRamaTV
https://pix11.com/news/local-news/judge-restores-nyc-education-funding-but-adams-to-appeal-decision/amp/
WHy are people making a fuss? Fewer students means less money is needed and fewer teachers are needed. WHat don't people understand about that?
ReplyDeleteCut go deeper than that, enrollments are in flux, time for reasonable class size caps is now, the cuts are causing teacher assignment chaos.
DeleteDoes anyone know if there have been any proposed cuts to the central staff bureaucracy like Adams claimed he would?
ReplyDeleteAlso, with over 3 billion that must be spent by 2025, does anyone know what they are saving the money for? Must be something amazing if they are willing to destroy so much for it.
Does anyone know whether the Central Office staff actually were despatched to schools last year to substitute for missing/removed staff?
DeleteIf yes, what is the plan for them for next school year?
Did they really only take money away from the only part of the system that actually matters? Surely there must have been cuts over at Tweed.
ReplyDelete$38 billion is too much. Cut 80% of the people outside of the school buildings. The teachers and students won't notice. Oh, sorry, can't do that. Those are all the connected people that are related to someone.
ReplyDeleteCut the jobs of the people who don't actually "get stuff done" sitting at home or in tweed offices. Adams is a racist who does not actually care about the students and certainly not the teachers.
ReplyDeleteTeacher have worked through covid and continue to do so in person now faced with monkey pox and still the mayor wants the people who actually "get stuff done" to get less support.
Teachers have been made to be counselors-with no extra pay now we are being made to
diagnose dyslexia and inform parents of this according to the videos we were forced to watch in June.
Everyone needs to be aware that dyslexia is supposed to be diagnosed by a doctor only we are not qualified-dispite what Mayor Adams says or dumps on us. Not all parents are going to welcome hearing this. Teachers can be sued for false claims. When a parent asks-"What are you qualifications to diagnose dyslexia?" should we say, " I watched a video but I have no formal training but Mayor Adams says this is enough for me to tell you your child has it?
Adams is disgrace(who asks for pictures of the candidates for a job) the way you look should have no bearing on how qualified you are for a job. FYI mayor this is illegal or should be. The BS excuse of "I need a picture to learn their names" only applies AFTER the candidate is hired.
And the NYC education system being trusted to Adams and Banks is a frightening thought.
Yep.
DeleteThat is a racist's ploy.
oh James, first with the censoring, propaganda crap, your election was robbed, give it up. Definition of insanity doing same thing over and over expecting different result.
ReplyDeleteWe have our woke black mayor what's the problem? The DOE has been a disaster with all DEMS. Betsy Devos is better than all your dems combined and she was not even a good selection. The money should follow the student/family. Besides attending one of the "better" schools around the borough there is no real education happening and these kids wont even get a job at rite aid.
WE give 50 billion to ukraine when we cannot even control our own countries issues.
There will be long-term ramifications for New York City and vis-à-vis New York City public schools, if Adams doesn’t make a concerted successful effort to bring down crime. Lots of companies have not returned to in person work and these companies may never do so especially as their employees are afraid to ride the subways and walk in Manhattan. Adams talks a good game but you didn’t need to know much to figure out that he was full of shit and remain so. I would have to say and I can’t believe that I am saying this, he is worse than de Blasio. Adams seems to have aspirations to higher offices, just like de Blasio, and he should take heed of de Blasio‘s recent humiliation in trying to run for another public office.
ReplyDeleteTom Sheppard
ReplyDelete@NYDailyNews the funds are not in limbo. @nycmayor just refuses to give them to @NYCSchools, even though a court order says he has too. It’s only a mess because @NYCMayor makes it that way.
I interact with the doe medical office. They are dysfunctional at full strength. Now they are down 5 employees. Injured members are waiting weeks and months for leaves to be approved. Not all DoE employees are bottom feeders. Some are critical for teacher welfare.
ReplyDelete...equity staff.
DeleteUm, our contract…? 5 weeks.
ReplyDeleteThis is also the price we pay for small schools. A lot of small schools eat up the budget more than fewer big schools. Each of those schools have a principal and their own programs that have to be funded.
ReplyDeleteSmaller schools are more likely to serve ss better, when run like a family, not like a woke incubator.
DeleteKathy Hochul (Mum on schools, class size, etc.)
ReplyDeleteI know a union job can make the American Dream a reality for so many people.
That’s why we’re working every day to strengthen unions and ensure workers have the wages, benefits, and workplace protections they deserve.
Only if you do what unions tell you to.
DeleteJust recall the 1000 doe workers fired this year . Not bcs the were poor professionals. They were bad 🧟♀️.
There are reasons!
ReplyDeletehttps://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2022/08/03/school-teacher-shortage/
Adams is really bad news for public education—and everyone knew that just based on his campaign rhetoric. But when has there ever been a Dem or Rep Mayor-in the past 45 years-that has been pro-teacher, pro-UFT or even pro-education. Koch’s animosity toward the UFT leadership is well documented., and even Dinkins was a surprising pain. Rudy G was mainly interested in stopping crime—and going about the Disneyfication of Broadway—as Gov.Pataki was the real nemesis at that time.— Bloomberg/Klein was a nightmare for 12 years. And that leaves the incompetent DeBlasio—who maybe was the best of the worst—even though he made several blunders with public education during his tenure.
ReplyDeletehttps://nypost.com/2022/08/06/a-nyc-school-diploma-isnt-worth-the-paper-its-written-on/
ReplyDeleteYeah, what’s the Post worth?
DeleteGrade fraud happens. A lot.
DeleteActually the post article is accurate. It also mentions eagle academy and Banks - “ One such school is the Eagle Academy for Young Men of Harlem, where in 8th grade, 95% of students failed Math proficiency according to New York State standardized testing, but the school passed 93.9% of them in that subject. The founder and former head of the Eagle Academy network, David Banks, is now Chancellor of the New York City Department of Education. He quickly banished standardized tests from large swathes of NYC’s education landscape.”
DeleteThere seems to be no information in regards to a new contract. This budget situation should suffice as a “reasonable” excuse as to why it’s not being handled. I’m curious as to why there seems to be no transparency when it comes to these things until it’s too late. Also, why would he appeal? The reason it was vacated seems clear. You can use these funds to create the smaller classrooms, useful resources for the children to better their critical thinking skills. Maybe a stronger team effort to lessen the copious amount of paper work.
ReplyDeleteGrade fraud is ubiquitous in the NYC schools. Grade fraud is systemic and everybody involved with the schools knows this to be true. Watering down curriculum and teaching below standards is a form of grade fraud, too. During the Bloomberg years, if schools did not institute grade fraud, they would be closed and re-opened with an administration willing to toe the grade fraud line.
ReplyDeleteCorruption and unethical practices are often wrapped in expensive packaging.
Odd that we get all these responses but no response to why it is fine that 30% of our students are proficient.
ReplyDeleteGood luck with that contract.
ReplyDeleteMore than two-thirds (69%) of Americans think the nation’s economy is getting worse — the highest that measure has reached since 2008, according to a new @ABC News/Ipsos poll. https://abcn.ws/3dghc3P
9:19: Don't be so hard on the Post. Yes they are tabloidish but at least they are keeping these principals and bureaucrats in check. They exposed the grading scandal at Maspeth and exposed Namita Dwarka as well. Without the Post, there would be a lot more fraud going on than we already see. Every time a principal does something unscrupulous, they have to worry if someone will expose them by telling the Post.
ReplyDelete11:02 100% agree, and plus Susan Edelman. Just being knee-jerk snide and recalling so many Post Editorial Board opinions in conflict with reality.
ReplyDelete"One such school is the Eagle Academy for Young Men of Harlem, where in 8th grade, 95% of students failed Math proficiency according to New York State standardized testing, but the school passed 93.9% of them in that subject. The founder and former head of the Eagle Academy network, David Banks, is now Chancellor of the New York City Department of Education. He quickly banished standardized tests from large swathes of NYC’s education landscape.”
ReplyDeleteThis is racism. Too bad none of you care. You all should be ashamed.
Agreed. Nobody can pass yet everyone passes. And the school is 100% black, yet nobody even questions it. Where will these students be in 20 years. Just check them off, they graduated. Where is Sharpton on this one? Adams? Weingarten? Mulgrew?
DeleteStandardized testing has been misused and should be a minor reality check, not the be-all and end-all. Unwise to assume what others ‘care’ about, unwise to accuse and be needlessly divisive. What is gained there?
ReplyDeleteBanks’ own policy says students can pass while never attending. Who does they help? Then, Banks says grade must be based on a standard. The math test, which everyone failed, was the standard, yet everyone passed.
ReplyDeleteThe UFT and NY city will not likely be able to agree on a new contract.
ReplyDeleteThe UFT needs to act quickly to declare an impasse and mobilize the membership. The previous contract with its multi-year delay was an abysmal disaster and great defeat. To have another long delay would be another disaster.
I find smaller schools to be more woke. Also does it really benefit the students in the long run to be coddled all the way through high school. Teachers who coddle students aren't there for the mess they made years later when the kid now an adult has nobody to turn to for help.
ReplyDeleteWell, you’re largely answering your own question. And does woke in your mind mean more or less coddling?
DeleteIt’s of course subjective what is coddling vs offering ample support, choices, chances, etc. As is holding feet to fire vs not giving proper access and maybe just not having time to do all aspects of the job.
https://gothamist.com/news/nyc-school-budgets-in-limbo-with-start-of-classes-weeks-away
ReplyDeleteLeonie
ReplyDeleteAbsurd appeal by City - asks for resolution of budget cuts lawsuit with "greatest practicable expedition" (ie speed) but that any arguments be put off till September! LOL
https://ny.chalkbeat.org/2022/8/9/23299197/nyc-school-budget-cut-adams-appeal
ReplyDeleteAppeals court gave city the OK to go through with cuts