The leaders of New York City’s public school system let slip Thursday that they are not currently acting on any contingency plans amid growing threats to federal funding.
The nation’s largest school district receives about $2.3 billion in federal funding each year, including more than $1 billion from the U.S. Education Department that President Trump has promised to shutter. Earlier this week, his administration announced mass layoffs as the latest move to wind down the agency.
“At this point, there is not a contingency plan, because we are hopeful we will continue to receive all the funding we deserve from both the federal and state level,” Emma Vadehra, deputy chancellor for operations and finance, said at an annual hearing on the local education budget.
The approach was met with criticism from the City Council committee’s chairperson, who urged the school system to take precautions, even if a loss of funding does not seem imminent. Plans are reportedly under consideration to move Education Department funding streams under different federal agencies.
“I think we shouldn’t have to wait till it happens to be scrambling,” said Education Chairperson Rita Joseph (D-Brooklyn), a former teacher. “I think we should plan. As educators, we plan. We don’t sit and wait for it to happen, and wonder, ‘What are we going to do?’”
The largest funding stream local schools receive from the federal government is Title I, or financial assistance for schools with high concentrations of poverty. The city receives around $700 million each year through that Education Department program, while other federal agencies pick up the tab for school meals and childcare programs.
Overall, federal funding contributes about 5% of the city school system’s budget. Vadehra said it is “hard to know” which funding streams are at greatest risk — but said a local food-purchasing program that has provided $8.4 million over the last couple of years is being cancelled for next year.
Schools Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos pushed back against the characterization that the local school system was unprepared.
“It’s not necessarily that we’re waiting to make a contingency plan,” she said. “We’re having internal conversations around all the possibilities. But we cannot enact on a plan with certainty when there are so many moving pieces … including waiting to see which cuts actually happen from the federal government.”
Contributing to the uncertainty is Gov. Hochul’s plan to change the state’s education funding formula, known as Foundation Aid, which is widely believed to be out of date.
One of the tweaks Hochul proposed would result in $350 million less for city schools than they would have otherwise received under the original formula — although they would still receive an overall increase in state funding.
“That reduction from the state is half of our entire Title I allocation from the federal government, right?” Vadehra said. “Just to put things in perspective here.”
Also, on the city level, several education programs created or expanded with federal stimulus dollars during the COVID-19 pandemic were continued with one-year, temporary funding after the emergency aid expired. They, too, are at risk of cuts or cancellations under Mayor Adams’ preliminary budget plan, including the city’s popular preschool program for 3-year-olds, known as “3-K.”
Also on Thursday, city education officials said they want to hire 4,000 more teachers to help principals implement school-level plans to lower class sizes, in accordance with a new state law.