Taking aim at the DOE, City Council proposes more budget cuts

Data specialists, new small schools, and empty seats in gifted programs could all go the way of cash bonuses to top-scoring schools if the City Council gets the budget cuts it wants.

The Council is proposing $170 million in additional budget cuts, on top of the millions Mayor Bloomberg already suggested, in an attempt to preserve a $400 rebate to homeowners that the mayor says the city can’t afford.

Almost $80 million of the proposed cuts would come from the Department of Education, the largest amount from any single city agency. Nearly $40 million of that would be programs associated with the department’s flagship Children First initiative, such as the school-based “inquiry teams” that analyze data about individual students. Other cuts would come in the form of delays, such as opening fewer schools each year and tabling plans to buy new data systems to manage enrollment and hiring information. And the proposal would require teachers to do jury duty on their own time, during the summer, so that schools won’t have to pay for substitutes.

The Council’s proposal comes weeks after Mayor Bloomberg rolled out his plan for how to shave the city budget. No cuts will be official until both sides of City Hall sign off on a compromise plan. A final version is expected in January.

Education committee chair Robert Jackson said council members didn’t consider cuts that would affect the classroom. From the press release:

“We have difficult choices to make in reducing the Department of Education’s administrative budget while making sure dollars are not cut from our children’s classrooms,” said Education Committee Chair, Robert Jackson. “I want to thank my colleagues in the Council for their efforts to reduce spending without diverting vital resources from the classrooms.”

Here are all of the education cuts the council has suggested:

  • Reduce budget for “Formative Assessments.”
  • Slow pace of new school openings. By temporarily slowing the creation of new schools, trimming the office of Portfolio Development and transferring the existing resources of closing schools to new schools, DOE could achieve savings.
  • Eliminate Data Specialist Allocation.
  • Eliminate Children First Inquiry Team allocation to schools. Require principals to review student & teacher performance.
  • Delay Special Projects. In FY09 DOE replaced private support for unspecified “Children First Intensive” project with City funds. Postpone project or find new private funding.
  • Delay implementation of [Open Market Hiring System] scanning project
  • DOE dedicated $6 million in FY09 for per diem arbitrators to clear backlog of administrative trials, but has not yet shown a corollary savings.
  • Delay Office of Student Enrollment and Placement enrollment RFP. Use existing resources to improve student enrollment process.
  • Reestimate Cost Increases. In FY09 DOE dedicated $50 million to covering special education “related services” cost increases and growth. Estimate is too large.
  • Fill Gifted and Talented empty seats. In FY09 DOE budgeted $2 million, but allocated only $1.24 million to schools for empty seats. In FY10 DOE should improve seat assignment to avoid empty seats in G&T classrooms.
  • Reduce Funding for Parents Coordinators. Support part-time or shared parent coordinators in smaller schools.
  • Extended Day Busing. Eliminate bus routes serving the extended day by matching extended time schedules with busing needs.
  • Require teachers to perform jury duty during summer months.

Download the full list of cuts proposed for all city agencies.