Posts tagged "budget breakdown"
budget breakdown
June 9, 2011
Bloomberg’s proposed layoffs would slash arts education
City Councilmember Robert Jackson speaks at a protest against cuts to arts education on the steps of City Hall.
Roughly 350 arts specialists will be among the 4,000 teacher layoffs next year if the City Council signs onto Mayor Bloomberg’s proposed budget, according to a report released today by an arts education advocacy group.
Building on 135 arts positions eliminated this school year, the layoffs would amount to a 20 percent reduction in the number of arts teachers working in city schools in just the last three years.
Eight City Council members and dozens of angry parents came to City Hall today to announce the report, prepared by the Center for Arts Education, and to protest the potential cuts.
Gretchen Mergenthaler, whose eight-year-old son Declan attends P.S. 98 in Inwood, said that he is offered either art or music once each week, but no dance or theater.
“We have a gorgeous auditorium that we don’t even use,” Mergenthaler said. “This is a picture of P.S. 98 before any budget cuts. Can you imagine it after?”
Today’s report is an analysis of data that the city has been releasing since it overhauled the way arts funding is allotted to schools. (more…)
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