So much for insulating schools in the next round of budget cuts.
Mayor Bloomberg told reporters today that additional cuts, such as the $206 million reduction proposed this morning by Gov. David Paterson, are going “pretty much straight to the classroom,” in the form of larger classes and fewer teachers, according to Azi Paybarah of Politicker NY.
“We have as few administrators as our system can responsibly have,” said Bloomberg when I asked him about education aid during a press conference this afternoon at One Police Plaza. The reduced funding will result in “larger class sizes and fewer services,” he said. When asked to elaborate on what he meant by “fewer services,” Bloomberg replied, “teachers,” and said, “I would love to keep class size down.” He thinks that will now be unlikely because of the funding cuts.
Bloomberg also said the budget pressure won’t cause him to make cuts in the Office of Accountability, which some advocates have suggested.
“We certainly can’t cut out at an administrative level those things that will let us look to see the performance so that we can look to see which programs are working,” he said. “Those things are even more important in down times than in good times. We can’t afford to do everything. We’ve got to look to see what really works.”
Note: The $600 million figure Bloomberg mentions in the video conflicts with what the Daily News reported this morning. We’re looking into it.