Mayor Bill de Blasio announced, yesterday, that the city’s struggling schools will get an extra $34 million next year and $60 million every year after to hire guidance counselors, launch academic intervention programs, and add Advanced Placement classes
The funding will support all of the city’s 30 renewal schools, community schools, and persistently failing schools
The money will make whole the Campaign for Fiscal Equity lawsuit, which the courts found that poorer school districts weren’t adequately funded. To qualify for funding, schools must submit detailed plans for approval that demonstrate precisely how the new funds will be spent and how they will advance key metrics like attendance, credit accumulation, test scores and on-time graduation rates.
“We’ve put real resources and real accountability in place to give students, teachers and communities at struggling schools a path to success. But we don’t want them fighting the decades-old headwind of underfunding at the same time. These new investments will make a real difference: more AP classes, more guidance counselors, extra tutors, and schools open longer. We have a plan for these schools’ success and we’re going to make sure they have the tools to turn around and raise student achievement,” said de Blasio.
De Blasio said with the funding comes a rigorous oversight plan including the troubling schools must provide a robust plan for strategic use of the new funding to achieve concrete gains in metrics like attendance, credit accumulation and on-time graduation.
Additionally, the plans could include hiring academic intervention services teachers to help students catch up and adding college readiness programs, guidance counselors and programming.
The plan received a thumbs up from several elected officials including Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams.
“Where Albany has failed to support our struggling schools, Mayor de Blasio has stepped up. For the first time, New York City’s 130 Renewal Schools, Community Schools and Persistently Low-Achieving Schools will be fully funded with resources they need to become successful. This year, and in subsequent years, recurring funding will be integral to ensure that our young people have the tools and skill to compete in the 21st century economy,” said Adams.
Also supporting the plan was the United Federation of Teachers (UFT), the Alliance for Quality Education, and the community based organization Make The Road New York.
“We have been saying for years that schools should get their ‘fair share’ of funds based on the needs of the students they serve, not on some cookie-cutter approach based on enrollment. Mayor de Blasio and Chancellor Fariña share that vision, and are reworking the system so our struggling schools can offer smaller classes, extra instruction, and programs tailored to students’ specific needs. By focusing our resources this way, these schools will finally get the tools they need to help their students,” said UFT President Michael Mulgrew.
