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Editorial/Opinion ....................Pages 12,13 Education
‘Restore the education cuts!’ said UFT and City Council
By ARIAMA C. LONG
Amsterdam News Staff, Report for America Corps Member
New York City serves roughly 1.1 million students, making it the largest public school district in the U.S. with 31 community school districts. That number is expected to drop as enrollments fluctuate this fall and budget cuts to schools strain classrooms.
City Council convened a joint hearing on education and oversight due to the expected city budget cuts to schools. The teachers union that rallied outside of City Hall during the hearings demanded that Mayor Eric Adams ‘restore the cuts.’ It’s not likely to happen though as the deadline hits on June 30.
“My name is Healy and I’m a D75 student. I have autism,” said Lucas Healy, an Asian American high school student who was with his mom, Paulette Healy, on the way to testify at City Hall. He said that he just wants to protect all teachers. His mother is a part of the Parents for Responsive, Equitable, and Safe Schools organization.
“We are so angry because we’ve
Outside City Hall's education rally against budget cuts last Friday. (Photo by Ariama C Long)
told the mayor and the chancellor already that their FSF needed to be reformed,” said Paulette Healy. “This is exactly why mayoral control needs to end.”
The Fair Student Funding formula (FSF) was developed in 2006 and implemented in 2007 under former Mayor Mike Bloomberg, replacing the methods previous DOE administrations used. It uses a ‘weighted per pupil’ funding model, meaning it’s an extra complicated way for the state and city to give money to schools based on how many kids they have. When a school’s enrollment is projected to go up, funding is increased, and when the school’s enrollment is projected to go down, funding is decreased, said Education Chair and Councilmember Rita Joseph.
It’s important to note that the City Council does not have the power to cut schools’ funding. Individual schools’ funding is determined by the state and the mayor using “a deeply flawed funding mechanism” in the FSF, said Joseph in a newsletter to constituents.
According to the Metropolitan Center for Research on Equity and the Transformation of Schools at NYU, since 2008 most of the city’s schools have “received less funding than their FSF allocations called for” and for many “underfunding out proper maintenance only compounds the was severe.” In a study about spread. Our volunteers can do a lot, but we race and schools from Barnard cannot operate lawn mowers in city parks. College, it’s shown that schools aren’t funded equally or eq- mitted to 1% for Parks by signing onto New York uitably though it was regard- ers for Parks’ ed as “progressive” years ago. it appeared that hope was coming for St. Nicho Often underfunded schools in las. But his preliminary budget fell well short of low income Black and Brown this commitment, allocating only .6%—which neighborhoods are left behind lags far behind other cities across the coun wealthier ones, creating segre- try that dedicate closer to 2% of their budgets to gation among students. Parks funding.
The $215 million slash to
See EDUCATION on page 30
By TANDY LAU
Amsterdam News Staff, Report for America Corps Member
The NYC Parks and Recreation is canceling public swimming programs this summer due to a nationwide lifeguard shortage, the city department announced over Twitter earlier this month.
“Safety is our top priority,” said NYC Parks Assistant Commissioner Crystal Hudson in a statement. “It’s because of this that we prioritize access to the millions who visit our pools annually rather than redirecting resources to ancillary programming.”
With public pools opening up this week, the limited ranks of lifeguards will be largely deployed to the 51 locations across the city. But their jobs are now harder with the absence of free courses like “Learn to Swim,” which teach the basics of water safety.
This month, a pair of 13-year-old boys drowned in Jamaica Bay and two other separate drownings occurred at the Rockaways. The deaths occurred in areas restricted by NYC Parks.
The void of free swimming courses also threatens to expand inequities in water safety—Black people drown at 1.5 times the rate of white people according to the CDC. And it opens the door for private businesses to enter communities of color and charge exorbitantly for classes. The City reported last year that Imagine Swimming charged Crown Heights residents $50 for half hour courses at the former city-owned armory.
“Nobody’s immune [to drowning] but clearly there’s going to be children who are at higher risk based on race, ethnicity and the availability of swim lessons and appropriate pools with appropriate supervision,” said Dr. Terri McFadden, professor of Pediatrics at Emory University
Given drowning is the leading cause of death for toddlers ages 1-4 and one of the leading causes of death for teens, how can parents keep their kids safe this summer without access to free or affordable swimming classes? According to McFadden, there’s no way to “completely drown-proof a child” but steps can be taken to mitigate chances of drowning. Supplying Coast Guard-approved lifejackets, securing bathtubs and learning CPR are all significant layers of protection parents can apply this summer. And keeping youngsters in sight is essential.
“There needs to be somebody who’s constantly got their eyes on those children,” said McFadden. “One of those strategies is to have a designated ‘water watcher,’ somebody who puts their phone down, puts their summer novel down, puts their drink down, put whatever they’re doing down so that they can focus exclusively on keeping an eye on the children in the pool…a lifeguard cannot keep an eye on every single child in a pool, especially on a really crowded day.”
To address the statewide shortage, Gov. Kathy Hochul is bumping up New York City lifeguard hourly pay to $22, a 21% increase. At a press conference last week, Mayor Eric Adams jokingly offered another solution.
“I would love to go to the Jersey Shore and steal their lifeguards,” said Adams. “But they [also] have a shortage.”
Tandy Lau is a Report for America corps member and writes about public safety for the Amsterdam News. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep him writing stories like this one; please consider making a tax-deductible gift today by visiting: https://tinyurl.com/fcszwj8w
