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the chopping block
May 19, 2009
Many principals to see a 5% cut tomorrow, even after stimulus
Principals will receive school budgets tomorrow that include a new 5 percent cut, Schools Chancellor Joel Klein announced today. The cuts are so deep that the department is temporarily abandoning its plan to finish adopting a new funding formula that it said would make school budgets more equitable.
The cuts, totaling $405 million across the city schools, could threaten non-teacher staff positions, after school programs, and training for teachers. But roughly 60 percent of schools will not actually experience cuts of the maximum size, Klein told reporters at a briefing today. That’s because slightly more than half of all principals chose not to allocate every dollar in their budgets for this year, instead “rolling over” a total of $95 million. The rainy day funds are being wiped out by the new cuts but are also softening the blow of next year’s cuts for many schools.
In addition, about 80 schools receiving the largest amounts of federal anti-poverty funds will actually see a slight increase in the size of their budgets, Klein said. The remaining 40 percent of schools will see their budgets drop the maximum 4.9 percent, he said.
Today’s cuts are on top of a total average 3 percent cut made to school budgets over the last year and a half.
Because of the cuts, the DOE is suspending its plan to start charging schools the real salaries that teachers make, a change that had been the cornerstone of the department’s Fair Student Funding formula. The formula was intended to spread more talented teachers to low-performing schools.
But the formula’s full implementation was postponed in 2007 under opposition from the teachers union and some high-performing schools, via a “hold harmless” provision that sent extra money that would have been taken away from some schools back to them. The provision had been set to expire this year, in a change that would have taken money from more affluent schools with older teachers and given it to schools with needier students. “We’re holding harmless,” Klein said today. “A year from now we’ll revisit the issue.”
The department is also scaling back restrictions on hiring at new schools, dropping the proportion of new teachers permitted in schools in their first, second, or third years to 40 percent from half. The restriction had caused consternation from teachers union president Randi Weingarten and Board of Regents Chancellor Merryl Tisch, who said last week that she thought new schools should be subject to the same restrictions as all other schools.
The magnitude of cuts comes despite nearly $1 billion in federal stimulus dollars for the city schools. Klein explained the discrepancy like this: Before today, the DOE had scaled back its projected budget for the fiscal year that begins on July 1 by $943 million. The stimulus total was slightly more than that, $961 million, but much of the stimulus funds have been carved away into other areas.
Once benefits for retirees and other expenses are accounted for, only $625 million of the stimulus money went to the department’s operating budget, leaving a $318 million hole. The department also identified about $155 million in new expenses, including the costs of new schools, prekindergarten programs, special education services, and teacher compensation. The new costs widen the hole to $473 million.
Klein said the the department would cut another $20 million centrally and shave spending on some special education services by $48 million. But that leaves the hole still at a solid $405 million that schools alone will have to shoulder.
Klein said today that he did not know where the $20 million in central cuts would cut come from. He said he hoped attrition would make a staff reduction possible.
Tomorrow, principals will receive their schools’ budgets and will convene in Manhattan for a meeting with Klein and other department officials. They must submit their preliminary budgets by June 18. Klein said principals are being told to “think hard” about cutting staff members or excessing teachers, but he said, “The decisions ultimately are theirs.”
Here’s an e-mail Klein sent to principals today about the budget situation:
Dear Colleagues,
On Wednesday, you will receive your budget for the 2009-10 school year in Galaxy. In this e-mail, I will explain what you should expect—and remind you that you are welcome to attend a session Wednesday afternoon to talk more about this situation in person.
First, before I begin, let me remind you that this is a tough year in New York City and across the country. Tax revenues are down significantly in our City and State, and that affects our overall budget. The Federal stimulus package is making this situation more bearable, and helping us to avoid teacher layoffs, but it does not make us whole. This means we must reduce our operating spending—even as we have been able to preserve our school capital budget in full.
When you receive your budget, you will see:
- Register adjustments, as you do every year;
- A reduction to your Fair Student Funding allocation (all schools will receive the same proportional reduction to their FSF funds); and
- Some combination of an increase in Title I dollars and/or an allocation of stabilization dollars from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
In aggregate, the total dollars in school budgets will be reduced by 3.8%. While all schools’ total budgets prior to the roll were reduced proportionately, some schools’ cuts will be slightly less and some schools’ cuts will be slightly more because different schools have saved and rolled over different amounts of money from the current school year. To be clear: if you rolled over money, the good news is you will be able to spend that money. We are not cutting the money you rolled forward.
Many principals have asked me why schools must cut back this year—especially in the context of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Here’s why: despite an increase in the overall DOE budget, coming largely from the Federal stimulus dollars, we will still experience a funding gap in school budgets. Between Fiscal Year 2009 and Fiscal Year 2010, uncontrollable costs will grow significantly. We will see significant increases in mandated costs. Special education costs for students in the public schools and for students whose education we must fund outside of the public school system continue to grow. Contractual costs are increasing, as is the cost of fringe. Since we value teachers and their critical importance to student success, we are paying them more, and as more teachers are staying in our system and the average level of seniority is rising, the associated salary costs are increasing. In this environment, the federal stimulus package will help us to avoid teacher layoffs, but it does not make our budget whole.
Once you receive your budget, we will work with you to plan for the coming school year. We will ask you to submit your preliminary budget plan by June 18.
If you haven’t yet RSVP’d, I invite you to join me Wednesday to discuss the budget situation at Murry Bergtraum High School at 4:30 p.m. Please let us know if you will be able to make it at www.zoomerang.com/Survey/survey-intro.zgi?p=WEB2295TMATML6. If you have any questions about this session, please e-mail DOEstaffing@schools.nyc.gov.
You are also invited to attend one of two online training sessions on FY10 Budget Development hosted by the Integrated Service Centers and the Children First Network. They are at 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. on Thursday, May 21. Please register at www.learningtimes.net/iscwebcasts.
I know that this year’s budget situation is not ideal, but I am confident that our public school principals can—even in this hard time—keep focused on student achievement and continue to help our schools and students move forward. I look forward to talking with you later this week.
Sincerely,
Joel I. Klein
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May 19th, 2009 5:23 pm
Klein said principals are being told to “think hard” about cutting staff members or excessing teachers, but he said, “The decisions ultimately are theirs.”
Talk about peeing on your leg and saying it is raining. What a joke. If the public allows this to go on, without making a stink, we deserve the future we provide for our children.
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May 19th, 2009 7:24 pm
“The cuts are so deep that the department is temporarily abandoning its plan to finish adopting a new funding formula that it said would make school budgets more equitable.” This is an outrage. Somehow high stakes testing is supposed to help close the achievement gap, but when it comes time to actually put its money where its mouth is, the DOE makes excuses for the persistence of separate but unequal schools.
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May 19th, 2009 9:44 pm
“…not ideal…” NOT IDEAL !?!
Note that in a system of roughly 1 million students, the “solid $405 million that schools alone will have to shoulder” is a whopping $405 per student. Over a class of 25 kids, that’s $10k. Bye-bye teacher’s aides. Bye-bye enrichment. Bye-bye all sorts of additional services.
And didn’t we go through this last year as well?
Maybe a DIFFERENT Chancellor would be in his boss’s (re-election) office lobbying on behalf of the kids, rather than defending a comparable amount of no-bid contracts to the state auditor, while Mayoral Control is on the docket in Albany.
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May 19th, 2009 9:57 pm
Re the “hold harmless” paragraph, and Ruben’s comment above:
My understanding was that the “hold harmless” provision was to prevent the Fair Student Funding mechanism (which covers city money only) from cutting into a school’s budget. But I have never heard it described as per the article, in effect as a zero-sum game relative to schools already fully benefiting from the FSF formula.Note that stereotypes can be inaccurate. There are schools out there — such as my own kids’ school — that, pre-FSF, were getting $2k, nearly 20%, LESS per student than the city-wide average of $11k (of related city-based funds) in 2007. At the time I looked into it, there were also less advantaged schools — that were already getting more than average budget-per-student — that “hold harmless” protected. As the Chancellor knew full well. But dang, that slogan played well.
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May 20th, 2009 10:28 am
You all are quoting from an article which also states that of the $1 billion in stimulus education aid, a huge chunk is going to pay for none other than pension cost increases for teachers. Is that what is meant when Randi Weingarten says that she wants education dollars to go “in the classroom?”
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May 20th, 2009 10:57 am
Dissenter,
Let’s run the math, shall we?
From the article… $961M in stimulus funds less $625M for the operating budget equals $336M of stimulus funds for non-operating expenses (”benefits for retirees and other expenses”).
SO… your “huge chunk” is some amount of the $336M, which is at most some portion of 35% of the stimulus funds. Right?Now to the point: the article doesn’t differentiate between “pension costs” — a prior city obligation — and “pension cost ‘INCREASES.’”
On the contrary, Klein’s memo mentions salary and benefit increases for ACTIVE teachers (which a 3.8% in-school budget cut ain’t gonna help with): “Since we value teachers and their critical importance to student success, we are paying them more, and as more teachers are staying in our system and the average level of seniority is rising, the associated salary costs are increasing.”
And if more of them retired, that would just fuel your argument further, no? It’s a big shell game. But blaming already-retired teachers for the Mayor and Chancellor imposing painful cuts that significantly impact the kids isn’t getting us anywhere.
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May 20th, 2009 1:08 pm
Michael M. there’s no difference between “prior City obligations” on pensions and “increases in pension costs,” they are the same thing, and you know that these dollars are flowing into pension accounts and not into classrooms. There’s no way around that reality. As I’ve said before, if the schools were really set up to benefit children instead of the adults that work in them . . . . . .
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May 20th, 2009 1:35 pm
Big D,
We have got to stop our mutual wasting of electrons on semantics. You introduced the word “increases,” and you (should) know full well the impact such a word has on the discussion.No, not the same thing.
I’d rather we focus on the money being spent in Tweed, the money being spent BY Tweed on non-competed contracts, the money Tweed is forcing principals to pay for what was formerly a centralized function (e.g., SSO’s), the money spent by the so-called Office of Accountability, and, the money being spent to convince New Yahkers what a bang-up job the Chancellor (and by extension his boss) has been doing.
Last, maybe it’s just me, but I think of retired teachers’ pensions as a form of deferred comp. When one signs up to be a teacher, the up-front pay, the summers off, and the pensions are part of the total compensation package — part of the deal.
You want to benefit children rather than adults (false choice, btw)? Then please join me in a) protesting the 3.8% in-school budget cuts (net of our little tea party’s topic), and b) taking the Tweedy Army of standardized test-hawkers to the beach. One way. It’s sunny. They can find their way home.
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May 22nd, 2009 8:14 pm
The whole thing is a sham.. This entire administration was set up by a brilliant business m,an and his cronies who found a way to get their hands on that huge portion of the budget previously available only for schools and services to kids .. By spending milliosn to retain control the idae is to keep millions more flowing into the companies, corporations and consultants they so adore (IBM’’s 100 plus million boondoggle:Aris system, AUSSIE’s, Teachers College CIE Consultants etc..).. The fact that they have a huge press office to spin everything yet cant male simple decisions without fear of ticking off the mayor is an indictment of this current governance model which relies more on perception and PR than real student growth..
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June 9th, 2009 3:41 pm
[...] how his 5 percent cut became 8.5 percent Posted in Uncategorized at June 5th, 2009 / // The 4.9 percent figure that Schools Chancellor Joel Klein has given for each school’s budget cut seriously [...]
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December 15th, 2009 6:01 pm
That’s strange. I noticed this letter was dated May 19th, 2009. I was hired in January of this year and my school is relatively new. In fact…several new teachers and paras were hired. Unfortunately the two new school aides were laid off, yet excessed school aides came to replace them so the laid off school aides only come back if one of the excessed school aides are absent. Go figure! what is going on? we are suppose to be meeting with UFT tomorrowin Dist. 26 at our school and a UFT meeting is mid december with Joe Klein. I still have no idea whats going on but If they decide to get rid of the paras aren’t they violating the childs IEP??? The two students I take care of desperately need my assistance, and have a learning disability. What will happen to them? Its time for the parents to protest now..! Violation of a state IEP, isn’t that against the state law for a child not to have a para? What if the child needs toileting or has a special need?
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Mapping the Budget Cuts
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