Eric Adams doubles down on NYC schools’ belt-tightening, cites budget crunch
As schools opened Thursday, Mayor Eric Adams refused to back down on cuts to the overall education budget, pointing to the dismal financial picture for New York City to come.
Projections laid out by city and state budget officials this week show a mammoth, $10 billion deficit in the years to come, thanks to high costs and expiring federal stimulus dollars.
“It’s not about just spending money — it’s about spending the money to get the results our kids deserve,” said Adams at a back-to-school press conference in the Bronx.
“We know we are doing the right thing, and time is going to show how focused we are about spending taxpayers’ money the appropriate way,” he said, referring to forecasts that the city will be nearing a budgetary crisis if it doesn’t get spending under control.
Adams pushed back on calls for the city to use COVID aid to cover budget cuts, due in large part to enrollment drops as schools return to a policy of tying budgets to student counts.
The vast majority of City Council members passed a resolution Tuesday calling on the administration to use those funds to reverse $469 million in cuts to principals’ allocations, while schools are still dealing with the fallout from the pandemic.
“Here’s what the City Council has stated in essence — that there’s a lot of stimulus money out there, let’s just spend this stimulus money,” said Adams.
Estimates from city Comptroller Brad Lander show the public schools have $4.4 billion in time-sensitive funds to spend over the next couple of school years, including more than $500 million that had been budgeted for last school year but wasn’t used by summer.
City Hall denies that any of those funds are unallocated.
“The money is running out, and every dollar that we have is accounted for,” Adams said.
There are roughly 120,000 fewer students on public school rosters over the last five years, according to the Department of Education — which expects to lose another 30,000 students by the end of this school year.
Advocates say reducing funding will only send more families to seek options outside the traditional public schools, including charter, Catholic and private schools — while Hizzoner has called it “dysfunctional” to spend the same amount on a school system serving fewer students.
“We’re facing a potential $10 billion deficit in the out-years — we must be fiscally smart,” said Adams, referring to reports from Lander and state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli for 2026 at a meeting of the Financial Control Board on Tuesday.
Many parents and teachers at dismissal were concerned about if their individual schools will have the resources they need.
Georgina Thornley, whose three kids attend various public schools across lower Manhattan, lamented the lengths parent groups go to fund after-school programs, classroom improvements and air conditioning.
“You want the school to be good. You don’t want to have your child sitting on a desk that is going to fall to bits. But it’s crazy that the city cannot provide those things,” she said.
Kathy Rodriguez, a Chelsea mom at P.S. 11 and a special education teacher at P.S. 138, said the PTA at her workplace can’t raise as much money as schools in her daughter’s district.
“So unfortunately, a lot of the children don’t have school supplies and things like that,” she said.
Carmen Mendez, a Manhattan mom of a fourth-grader with disabilities at P.S. 340, worried about how less funding per pupil would have a “piggyback” impact on her daughter with additional needs.
Plus, the school this year lost one of its two security guards, Mendez told The Post at pick-up.
“That’s what makes me anxious, is that I’m here being the security guard to make sure my daughter is safe,” she said.
