Just before the end of last year, the United Federation of Teachers (UFT) filed a lawsuit in Manhattan State Supreme Court to block Mayor Eric Adams and the education department’s nearly $2 billion in budget cuts to city schools.
In November 2023, the city announced cuts of nearly $550 million to the education budget. Plans for further reductions this year could amount to $2 billion. The cuts affected universal pre-K initiatives, after-school programs, planned summer school programs, and other services.
Adams has maintained that the city is hemorrhaging money because of the influx of asylum seekers and lack of support from the federal government, making these cuts necessary. The lawsuit, filed on December 21, challenges the claim that high estimates of the cost of asylum seekers will create a fiscal crisis, and says it’s illegal to use schools as a “political bargaining chip.”
“The administration can’t go around touting the tourism recovery and the return of the city’s pre-pandemic jobs, and then create a fiscal crisis and cut education because of its own mismanagement of the asylum seeker problem,” said UFT President Michael Mulgrew in a statement. “Our schools and our families deserve better.”
Liza Schwartzwald, director of economic justice and family empowerment at the New York Immigration Coalition (NYIC), added in a statement that all students in the city have the right to a quality education.
“The Mayor has continuously scapegoated asylum seekers to justify current and proposed cuts to the education budget,” Schwartzwald’s statement said. “But the administration’s austerity cuts do not reflect the reality of our City’s financial situation.” She cited the Independent Budget Office (IBO) budget estimates, which state that asylum seekers’ costs are billions of dollars less than the mayor’s proposed numbers and that tax revenues have increased by $5 billion since last year.
“Rather than pursuing long-term solutions to lower asylum seeker costs further, the mayor instead doubles down on unjustified cuts that will have long-term detrimental effects on the many students who have been struggling to catch up after years of destabilization and uncertainty,” said Schwartzwald. “As enrollment rates are increasing for the first time in over five years, it is time to invest in our public schools. We stand with the United Federation of Teachers, and all New York City public school students, in the fight to ensure a quality education for all New York children.”
The UFT also alleged that according to state law, the city “illegally” decreased education funding as the state increased its education funding contribution to city schools, despite billions of revenue in the city’s reserves last fiscal year. The law falls under a requirement known as “maintenance of effort” that is a part of mayoral control legislation for New York City schools.
The state is currently reviewing mayoral control in a series of public hearings being held in the city. Dozens of educators have testified on the Bronx and Queens hearings. Many are registering to speak at the Brooklyn hearing this week, said the UFT.
“The UFT, they have to represent their members. And from time to time, friends disagree. And sometimes it ends up in a boardroom and sometimes it ends up in a courtroom,” said Adams at an ethnic media roundtable on December 22, 2023. He was referring to Mulgrew and Henry Garrido, executive director of District Council 37 (DC 37). DC 37 similarly filed suit against the city over budget cuts.
“We should not mix up a point of disagreement with the point that we both want what’s best for this city. I look forward to talking with Henry and Michael, and try[ing] to come to a determination,” said Adams. “They know—listen, these guys, these are smart guys. They know what we’re facing.”
Ariama C. Long is a Report for America corps member who writes about politics for the Amsterdam News. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep her writing stories like this one; please consider making a tax-deductible gift of any amount today by visiting https://bit.ly/amnews1.