Mayor Zohran Mamdani dropped his threat to hike property taxes as a way to close the budget gap after Gov. Kathy Hochul promised additional aid for his $124.5 billion spending plan.

The city budget includes an additional $4 billion in support to close the gap, totaling nearly $8 billion over two years.

That money is through $352 million in direct aid, $3.2 billion from programs that require state authorization and $500 million in new revenue — enough to close the $12 billion budget gap for the next two fiscal years that Mamdani inherited from his predecessor.

“I am proud to announce that we have closed the gap entirely, down to zero,” the mayor said at a press conference Tuesday.

“It hasn’t been easy but we have balanced the budget and we have done so without placing the burden on the backs of working New Yorkers.”

The mayor thanked Hochul, State Senate Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, State Assembly Majority Carl Heastie and Council Speaker Julie Menin for their help and partnership, along with “the movement that carried us to City Hall.”

The budget, he said, “is evidence of a new era of government in our city, one that can balance both ambition and fiscal responsibility.”

The mayor’s budget manages to close a $5.6 billion shortfall for this fiscal year and an estimated $7 billion gap for next year without new income taxes for the wealthy and for corporations that he had demanded from Albany, and without raiding the city’s financial reserves. 

Jabs at the Wealthy

But Mamdani said they are taxing the rich through other changes, like a pied-à-terre tax on luxury second homes that is estimated to bring in $500 million in new revenue. 

There is also a proposal to reduce the Unincorporated Business Tax credit, known as UBT, which he noted mostly benefits millionaires. Reducing the tax credit will bring in an estimated $68 million, according to the mayor. 

“These are common sense measures,” he said. “Working New Yorkers cannot be asked to sacrifice as we sit in the wealthiest city in the wealthiest country in the history of the world.”

Pension Moves

Other revenue and savings comes from the state taking over expenses that shifted to the city years ago, like line of duty death benefits for families of first responders killed on the job, saving the city $202 million. There’s also an additional $600 million in youth programming and $300 million to restore money for sales tax intercepts.

The city will also seek state approval for pension amortization, which could save more than $2 billion by restructuring some payments over the next two years, which Mamdani assured wouldn’t affect benefits for current or retired city workers.

“I think there’s a logic to smoothing out payments,” city Comptroller Mark Levine said Tuesday morning after a budget briefing with the mayor and his team. 

“I think it’s easier to plan for the long term when you have a smooth payment schedule.”

More than $1 billion in savings comes through a delay in the state’s mandated cap on class sizes which would require hiring more teachers and administrators. Last year, the city approved hiring 3,700 more teachers and 100 more assistant principals.

Mamdani added more money to hire 1,000 additional teachers and $1.5 billion to the $7.6 billion existing budget for the School Construction Authority’s five-year capital plan.

The mayor is also working to rein in spending on some students whose private school tuition is paid for by the city when it’s found they can’t receive the same special education services at public schools. 

The cost of what’s known as “Carter” and “Connors” cases – depending on how the money is paid out – has increased 300% over the last decade, according to data obtained by Chalkbeat. Tuition costs can go as high as $144,000 per student.

To address this rising number of students, the Department of Education will invest more money in special education needs, like speech and occupational therapy, the mayor said.

Another major rising cost to the city’s budget is housing vouchers, specifically through the City Fighting Homelessness and Eviction Prevention Supplement, or FHEPS, program. 

The mayor is fighting a legal battle against implementing a package of laws the City Council passed in 2023 to expand eligibility for the vouchers. He promised to put the laws into effect as a candidate, but reversed once he took office due to budget pressures. 

Around 68,000 households rely on CityFHEPS vouchers, while another 47,000 could end up depending on the program if it’s expanded.

Mamdani plans to save $519 million within CityFHEPS, mostly through administrative changes, he said. 

The mayor announced new spending in his budget, including $40 million for the Office of Community Safety and $26 million towards hate crime prevention.

‘Conservative’ on New Spending

Levine, the comptroller, said there was a lot of “good news in this budget” but he was still cautious.

“We are entering into very uncertain economic times because of the threat of a recession and the impact of AI, and I want us to build a very strong fiscal foundation that grows reserves,” he said.

“There still is a reliance on a number of one-shot measures, and those are tools that are then going to be off the table next year. And we are looking at about a $7 billion shortfall for the following fiscal year.”

Levine did praise the mayor for his “pretty modest” additional spending.

Some of the additional money includes $31.7 million to the three library systems, $15 million to the Parks Department, $10 million to cultural organizations and $15 million to the City University of New York.

“It’s been a while since we’ve seen a mayor be this conservative on new spending,” Levine said about the spending. “It reflects why we’re in a better place today than we were in February.”

Mamdani had floated a property tax increase as a last-resort option to raise money to fill the gap, as Gov. Hochul continued to resist raising taxes.

Raising the property tax rate, which has not been done since Mayor Michael Bloomberg, is one of the few levers the mayor has to raise revenue. It was met with immediate backlash and was unlikely to pass in the Council. 

Hochul’s help to the city benefits the whole state, she said at an unrelated event Monday.

“He inherited a pretty significant financial mess,” Hochul said. 

Public Advocate Jumaane Williams took a cautious approach to the promised state aid.

“I think until that budget is passed, you don’t know if all that money is real,” he said following his briefing.

Our nonprofit newsroom relies on donations from readers to sustain our local reporting and keep it free for all New Yorkers. Donate to THE CITY today.

The post Mamdani Plugs $12 Billion Budget Hole With Hochul Assist appeared first on THE CITY - NYC News.

This story was originally published by Chalkbeat. Sign up for their newsletters at ckbe.at/newsletters.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul intends to opt the state into the federal tax-credit scholarship.

The announcement represents a major win for supporters of private school choice who have been lobbying Democratic governors to participate in the program. However, Hochul’s office said she intends to review the details before making the decision official.

The American Federation for Children, a national school choice advocacy group, said Thursday night that Hochul first made the announcement at a private gathering. The meeting was with Agudath Israel, an organization that supports Jewish religious education, according to an Agudath spokesperson.

Emma Wallner, a spokesperson for the governor, confirmed Hochul’s plans to opt in to the tax credit.

“Governor Hochul is supportive of the federal tax credit scholarship and its potential to help New York students and schools,” Wallner wrote in a statement. “Our office awaits information from the federal government on the program and will thoroughly review the details of the policy for poison pills that could harm New York’s education system.”

The Treasury Department is still in the process of developing guidelines for the program, which will clarify, for example, how donated money might benefit public school students or whether states can prevent scholarship-granting organizations from discriminating against certain students.

The tax credit was approved last year as part of the Republican-backed One Big Beautiful Bill Act. It allows taxpayers to get a dollar-for-dollar credit up to $1,700 on their federal taxes if they donate money to an eligible scholarship-granting organization. These organizations could give students money for private school tuition, tutoring, and other educational expenses.

Governors, however, have to opt into the program for students in their state to benefit.

“Finally, school choice is coming to New York, thanks to the courage of Governor Hochul and the tremendous advocacy of countless families, educators, and supporters who have worked for generations to advance options for kids who need them,” American Federation for Children CEO Tommy Schultz said in a press release.

According to a tracker maintained by the advocacy group EdChoice, 27 states, nearly all of them led by Republicans, have opted into the tax credit.

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis is the only Democratic governor to have officially opted in. Under pressure from Republican lawmakers, North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein said last year that he intends to do so after the rules are released.

Some Democratic governors have been strongly opposed. In Wisconsin, which launched one of the nation’s earliest voucher programs, Democratic Gov. Tony Evers vetoed Republican-backed legislation that would have opted that state in. In a veto statement, he cited the lack of any accountability measures in the federal program.

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear also vetoed opt-in legislation, as did Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly, but Republican-controlled legislatures overrode vetoes in both states.

Other Democratic governors are taking a wait-and-see approach. Democratic backers of expanding school choice argue that families want more options and that states that don’t opt in risk their own taxpayers donating to scholarship groups in other states. Opponents say the program undermines public education and threatens funding, even if indirectly.

Nationally and in New York, supporters of religious education have lobbied for the tax credit as a way to ease the tuition burden for families.

“This is extraordinary news for Jewish families and for every community across our state,” said Sydney Altfield, the CEO of Teach NYS, an organization that lobbies for public funding for Jewish schools. “Blue states across the country will now be watching closely.”

Hochul has courted the Orthodox Jewish community, an influential voting bloc, as she faces reelection in November. Along with state legislative leaders, she previously pushed to weaken oversight of private schools, a measure that would largely benefit certain yeshivas that do not always provide a basic secular education. The state’s education commissioner, Betty Rosa, called the move a “travesty.”

Hochul has backed other efforts to expand school choice since taking office nearly five years ago, drawing pushback from other New York Democrats. In 2023, she proposed to significantly expand the number of charter schools in New York City, even as the publicly funded yet privately managed schools have fallen out of favor among many left-leaning elected officials. State lawmakers rejected Hochul’s sweeping proposal but ultimately approved a more modest expansion.

Hochul has also touted her commitment to funding traditional public schools and has presided over increases in state spending. State officials indicated Thursday that schools should expect at least a 2% bump in the state’s forthcoming budget, which is more than a month overdue and has yet to be finalized.

“I’m proud of the resources we have put into education,” she told reporters Thursday.

This story has been updated with additional details about the private meeting where Hochul announced her support for the tax credit, as well as additional background about Hochul’s approach to private school oversight.

Erica Meltzer is Chalkbeat’s national editor based in Colorado. Contact Erica at emeltzer@chalkbeat.org.

Alex Zimmerman is a senior reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

Our nonprofit newsroom relies on donations from readers to sustain our local reporting and keep it free for all New Yorkers. Donate to THE CITY today.

The post Hochul Intends to Opt Into Federal Tax Credit in Win for Private School Choice appeared first on THE CITY - NYC News.

This story was originally published by Chalkbeat. Sign up for their newsletters at ckbe.at/newsletters.

As Mayor Zohran Mamdani scrambles to plug a multi-billion dollar budget gap, his administration is looking more closely at the money New York City spends on private school tuition for students with disabilities.

The payments — which topped $723 million last school year, up more than 300% from a decade earlier, according to the Independent Budget Office — have long generated intense debate about which families are benefitting. Now, according to data the Education Department previously declined to share, officials have revealed a staggering inequity: The vast majority of students who have access to that money are white.

Families may receive funding for private school tuition after going through a legal process to show their children can’t be adequately served in the public school system. Nearly 71% of students who won tuition payments last school year were white, a population that makes up 12.5% of students with disabilities in the city’s public schools, according to Education Department data that the City Council pushed the agency to disclose last year.

Black and Latino children, who make up about 75% of students with disabilities, represented just 24% of children receiving tuition reimbursements. (About 1 in 5 families did not disclose their race.) The families who benefit from those tuition payments are also much more likely to live in wealthier zip codes, the data confirms.

The statistics may add fuel to the debate about how to make the special education system fairer and rein in growing costs, an issue that has drawn scrutiny in recent months. Many families say the tuition payments are a lifeline, helping them secure specialized instruction they couldn’t otherwise get in the public system. Last school year, the city made tuition payments on behalf of nearly 7,600 students, which cost roughly $100,000 per child on average, city officials said.

Those students have disabilities that range from dyslexia to more complex challenges. About one-third of students who benefit from tuition payments have autism; their tuition costs are about $144,000 a year on average, officials said.

Families of color and those who live in higher-poverty neighborhoods are often shut out of the reimbursement process. Caregivers may not know they are eligible for private placements funded by the city, have legal help to file the necessary claim, or secure outside evaluations to bolster their case for a private school placement.

“The people who have the resources can afford better representation and have better opportunities to engage the legal system,” said Nelson Mar, an attorney at Bronx Legal Services, which handles special education cases for low-income families. “This is what plays out in the legal system in America.”

Private schools often expect families to pay for some tuition costs up front while their legal claim plays out, a strain even on more affluent households. Those are known as “Carter cases” named for a U.S. Supreme Court decision that affirmed the right to those payments.

Low-income families can request that the payments go directly to the private school without the family paying up front, which are known as “Connors cases.” But those opportunities can be limited because “there’s only a few schools that are willing to really take on that type of risk,” Mar said, noting the family may not end up winning their legal case for payments.

In addition to those tuition cases, state law also requires the city to pay for services such as speech therapy and tutoring for students who attend private schools and never considered a public school. Those families aren’t eligible for tuition payments and are excluded from the racial demographic data in this story.

Including the payments for those services, which officials said costs roughly $400 million, the city now pays well over $1 billion a year on tuition and services for students in private schools — roughly $1 in every $40 of the Education Department’s budget.

The city is attempting to tackle the rising cost of services for students in private schools who aren’t seeking tuition payments in part by instituting “fraud controls” to deal with providers who have reportedly billed for services that were unnecessary or weren’t delivered, said Liz Vladeck, the Education Department’s top lawyer. (Many of those services are provided in neighborhoods with large Orthodox Jewish populations where many students attend yeshivas.)

Budget Crunch

The exponentially rising cost of private school special education has attracted attention from City Hall as Mamdani scrambles to fill a projected $5.4 billion gap in the city’s budget.

In a bid to secure more funding from the state to help ease the deficit, city officials have floated private school payments as a potential area for savings, a spokesperson for Gov. Kathy Hochul confirmed.

Vladeck declined to comment on the specifics of those negotiations in an interview with Chalkbeat, but said she is troubled by the racial inequities and growing costs.

“I see it as an urgent problem,” she said, “that’s very challenging for policymakers to get their arms around because it is complicated.”

City officials say they can save money by educating a greater share of students in private placements in the city’s public schools, a promise officials across multiple administrations have made even as tuition costs have continued to grow.

“It used to be a fair critique that special education programs and services in New York City public schools were spotty,” Vladeck said. But she stressed that the city’s compliance with students’ special education learning plans has improved, and the Education Department has incrementally expanded programs for students with disabilities, including those with autism. The city is also overhauling literacy instruction, including for struggling readers.

Vladeck contends the city’s programs can cost dramatically less than what private programs charge and that private schools generally don’t share achievement data, making it difficult to know if they are more effective.

Will Mamdani Take Action?

It remains to be seen how Mamdani will approach the issue and past mayors have taken radically divergent approaches.

Former Mayor Michael Bloomberg hired an army of lawyers to fight tuition reimbursement requests, which are adjudicated by administrative judges. The goal was to avoid unnecessary placements and plow more money into the public school system as a whole, but the strategy drew criticism from parents and advocates.

His successor, Bill de Blasio, took a less aggressive stance. In response to pressure from lawmakers, he made it easier for parents to seek reimbursement from the city in part by settling cases and not fighting families over the same school placements year after year. He framed the effort as a matter of equity for parents who may not have the resources to repeatedly mount aggressive legal cases.

“That was well intentioned, but it had some pretty damning consequences,” Vladeck said at a City Council hearing in March. In the years that followed, the number of special education complaints seeking payments for tuition, services, and other special education requests grew significantly and costs exploded.

A February report from the conservative-leaning Manhattan Institute argued the reimbursement system is “financially unsustainable” and urged rolling back some of the de Blasio-era reforms, among other changes.

But not everyone is convinced that bringing more students with disabilities into the school system would be less expensive without reducing the level of services students get in private programs.

“I really disagree when people say that this is an unreasonable cost for the DOE to bear,” Mar said of the Education Department spending on private school tuition.

His clients who have private tuition paid by the city have generally made “significant growth.” Mar said a more equitable system would be less adversarial, noting the city often fights cases even when it’s clear the student isn’t receiving the help they need.

Brooklyn mom Dolores Swirin-Yao said she would have preferred to keep her son Jeremy, who has attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and learning disabilities including dyslexia, in the public school system. When it became clear his public school wasn’t successfully teaching him to read, she felt she had no choice but to consider a private placement and file a legal claim for reimbursement.

“People say that this is a way for people to game the system and get their kids in private school,” Swirin-Yao said. But her son’s public school “seemed to believe that he would never read.” Without that skill, she worried he would end up on public assistance.

Swirin-Yao hired a lawyer and fronted tuition payments, straining to take on $125,000 in debt while waiting for the Education Department to reimburse her. She recognized she still had a leg up: access to credit, the ability to make phone calls during the work day, or take leave to attend a legal hearing. Though her son is Black, Swirin-Yao felt she benefited from being middle class and white.

Jeremy ultimately learned how to read. He graduated from The Aaron School in 2024.

Despite the stress and strain of paying tuition up front, it was “the best investment I ever made,” Swirin-Yao said. “My child was able to graduate from high school, go to culinary school, can work in this field, and has a future.”

Alex Zimmerman is a senior reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

Our nonprofit newsroom relies on donations from readers to sustain our local reporting and keep it free for all New Yorkers. Donate to THE CITY today.

The post Staggering Racial Gap in NYC Private School Tuition Payments for Special Ed appeared first on THE CITY - NYC News.

This story was originally published by Chalkbeat. Sign up for their newsletters at ckbe.at/newsletters

Five new schools are expected to open this fall in The Bronx and Queens: Two will exclusively serve students with significant disabilities, three will have an arts focus, and all promise to incorporate project-based learning.

The new schools aim to ease overcrowding in neighborhoods that have historically been bursting at the seams, city officials said. They also are geared to expand access to seats in District 75, a network of public schools for students with significant disabilities, so students don’t have to travel as far to school.

“Our new schools reflect a bold commitment to expanding access to high-quality, rigorous learning experiences for every student, in every neighborhood,” schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels said in a statement on Thursday.

Several of the new schools have been in the works for a while, but the move to open new campuses comes at a time when the nation’s largest school system is getting smaller, and the city is increasingly eyeing school mergers as it grapples with enrollment losses. There were roughly 793,000 K-12 students, according to preliminary data for this school year. That’s down about 15% from the 2019-20 school year, when the city served about 912,815 students.

The city opened seven new schools this year and nine new schools the year before. The city recently nixed plans to open New Generation Technology High School, a proposed selective school with an AI focus after community members pushed back on its admissions process and raised concerns about AI use in the classroom.

Here’s a look at the schools expected to open in September:

Academy of Cultural Excellence: Long Island City, Queens

The school, which will serve prekindergarten to fifth grade, aims to foster “confident, curious, and compassionate learners,” according to its website. It will embrace project-based learning and the arts, city officials said. Starting in third grade, students will “co-design an individualized learning pathway, allowing them to pursue areas of interest while maintaining strong academic foundations,” said a blurb on MySchools.

The school will not be zoned, according to MySchools. But students from the nearby P.S./I.S. 78, which had a waitlist last year for students in its zone, will get priority.

The school is in District 30, which has long been overcrowded and is one of the few districts where enrollment has been growing. The district is also home to the largest number of new apartments constructed in the past year — more than 2,470 — according to 2026 data from the New York City School Construction Authority. Yet, city officials expect enrollment to decline in the district, along with most others, over the next decade.

Bronx School of Arts & Exploration: Highbridge/South Crotona, The Bronx

This District 75 school, for students in grades K-8, will have an arts focus, integrating core academics with visual and performing arts. It will also employ project-based learning and performance-based assessments, school officials said.

The Bronx School of Hip-Hop: Claremont, The Bronx

Students at this 9-12 school will study hip-hop — emceeing, DJing, and graffiti — in the borough that birthed the art form. The school will also teach entrepreneurship and civic engagement through music while creating pathways to college, internships, and careers for students, school officials previously said.

“It’s about keeping the Bronx at the center of a culture we gave to the world,” Carl Manalo, the high school superintendent for Districts 7, 9, and 12, said when the city approved the school in December.

Each classroom will operate like a studio, according to the school’s MySchools page, with units culminating in showcases for students’ original work.

Admissions are based on what’s known as “Ed. Opt,” where a certain number of students performing at “high, medium, and low” academic levels are accepted.

Queens Academy for Innovative Learning: Astoria, Queens

Students from grades 6-12 at this District 75 schools will focus on STEM and work-based learning to help prepare them for jobs after high school.

West Q Elementary (P.S. 437): Woodside, Queens

This new elementary school in Queens’ District 24 will seek to blend math and literacy instruction with more hands-on projects. According to its MySchools page, each grade in the K-5 school will take on a “signature project that connects classroom learning to real-world experiences.” District 24 has roughly 1,300 open seats across its middle and elementary schools, but roughly a third of its 83 school buildings were listed as overcrowded last year, according to city data. The district is also projected to lose among the most students of any district in the next decade, according to the city’s predictions.

West Q will not be zoned, but will give priority to students who live in the district, according to its MySchools page.

Michael Elsen-Rooney is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Michael at melsen-rooney@chalkbeat.org

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy at azimmer@chalkbeat.org.

Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools.

Our nonprofit newsroom relies on donations from readers to sustain our local reporting and keep it free for all New Yorkers. Donate to THE CITY today.

The post The Bronx and Queens Get New Public Schools, Including One for Hip-Hop appeared first on THE CITY - NYC News.

This story was originally published by Chalkbeat. Sign up for their newsletters at ckbe.at/newsletters.

In a major reversal, New York City schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels is withdrawing controversial proposals to open the city’s first artificial intelligence-focused high school, close two middle schools, and relocate another.

The plan to open Next Generation Technology High School as a selective school in downtown Manhattan drew fierce community opposition in recent months. The city also saw intense backlash to its proposals for a slew of Upper West Side schools: to close the middle schools of P.S. 191 and Manhattan School for Children, and to relocate The Center School.

All four proposals were scheduled for a vote Wednesday in front of the city’s Panel for Educational Policy, or PEP. Withdrawing the proposals makes it nearly impossible for them to take effect next school year.

Samuels, who’s entering his fourth month as chancellor under Mayor Zohran Mamdani, said he believes all of the proposals “met multiple goals” but decided it wasn’t fair to advance them so quickly after a major leadership transition. Instead, he hopes to revisit the proposals later on, with a stronger plan for hearing community feedback.

“These proposals were always ambitious,” Samuels told Chalkbeat in an interview Sunday. “I think when you have a transition and you’re hearing simultaneously that families want more time, I want to be a chancellor who listens and engages and understands the complexity of all of the issues.”

The proposals represented an early and personal challenge for the chancellor, who previously served as superintendent of Manhattan’s District 3, where he helped get the ball rolling for the Upper West Side school proposals. As superintendent, Samuels developed a reputation for shepherding complicated school merger proposals to the finish line.

Multiple PEP members expressed serious concerns about the proposals directly to Samuels in recent days, according to several panel members. Chairperson Greg Faulkner penned a letter asking Samuels to withdraw the proposal for Next Generation High School, according to a copy obtained by Chalkbeat. The panel’s main criticism was over the school’s designation as a “screened” school, raising concerns about equity and access.

Samuels said he didn’t withdraw the proposals because of concerns they would not clear the panel’s vote. But losing a high-profile vote could have complicated Mamdani’s campaign pledge to run the school system in a more democratic fashion, especially while pushing to retain control of the school system.

Mamdani is lobbying state lawmakers for a four-year renewal of mayoral control, which expires in June, and an extension of the city’s deadline for complying with the class size law — arguments that hinge in part on his ability to convince them he will be responsive to community needs. (An agreement on mayoral control could be included in the state budget, which is overdue and expected to be finalized soon.)

The Upper West Side proposals were meant to help stabilize flagging enrollment while clearing out space for an overcrowded school to meet the class size requirements, city officials said. But parents and community members from all three schools decried the plans, arguing officials didn’t do enough to engage parents and that the moves would undermine critical support for vulnerable students. Several elected officials planned to hold a press conference Monday morning to oppose the plans.

Meanwhile, the proposal for Next Generation Technology High School, often called “Next Gen,” generated pushback from some families concerned about the role of AI in schools — tapping into a larger debate roiling the city and country.

Education Department officials recently introduced a draft AI playbook that largely sidestepped thorny questions about how to regulate student AI use and drew intense criticism from some parents who feared it encouraged schools to embrace untested technology. Samuels said he wants to focus on finishing that guidance before crafting proposals for schools like Next Gen.

“We have to ensure that any future proposal of a model like Next Gen high school fits the needs of the broader community and aligns with our AI guidance,” he said.

Officials had already solicited applications from eighth graders to Next Gen, though they hadn’t yet offered admission.

AI and Equity

Officials had been moving swiftly to open Next Gen, a selective Lower Manhattan school geared toward preparing students for jobs in cyber security, computer science, robotics, and math. It would also teach students to be “builders as well as ethical users of AI and other modern technologies,” according to the city’s proposal for the school.

Supporters of selective schools, which typically admit students based on their middle school course grades, said the program would allow students to explore an emerging technology and help prepare them for competitive tech jobs.

But critics argued the school’s planning process was rushed, its mission was unclear, and it could enable companies like Google and OpenAI to influence how AI is used in city classrooms. Both companies were part of the school’s planning team, and Manhattan High Schools Superintendent Gary Beidleman said his experience as a Google Education Innovation Fellow in 2024 inspired his decision to push for the new program.

Some panel members raised concerns that the school was slated to admit students based on their academic records rather than being open to anyone and pressed officials about why the campus was planned for Lower Manhattan as opposed to higher-need areas of the city.

“If they’re talking about this technology really being something that is going to become more global … why would we be exclusive in who can have access?” said Faulkner, the chair.

Panel members raised the idea of introducing an AI literacy course that could be used across multiple schools, rather than concentrating on a single standalone school.

Faulkner added that he worries about opening more screened schools “that have historically segregated” students.

Samuels said he believes the city’s current system for deciding admission to selective schools, which groups students into five tiers based on their seventh grade marks, is working.

“I’m not necessarily looking to make major changes to screens in high school,” he said.

Panel members were also frustrated with how top officials handled public discussions about the school. Several pointed out that district officials’ communication about the school seemed to suggest it was already approved, even though it hadn’t yet cleared a panel vote.

Under the city’s original proposal, Next Generation would have taken the place of the Urban Assembly School of Business for Young Women, which currently enrolls just 91 students. The city is still moving forward with plans to close that school.

Families at a middle school on the same campus, Lower Manhattan Community School, had also raised concerns about Next Generation because they have long pushed for space in the building to make the school a program for grades 6-12 rather than 6-8.

District 3 Proposals

The move to withdraw three controversial proposals in District 3 came after months of outcry from families and educators in the district. They argued the process felt rushed and the timing of the decision would force families who planned to enroll in the two middle school programs slated for closure, P.S. 191 and the Manhattan School for Children, to scramble to find new schools for this fall.

Some families at P.S. 191 felt the school, which enrolled many asylum-seeking children, had not been properly supported by the city’s Education Department. The Manhattan School for Children developed a reputation for including students with disabilities in classes alongside their general education peers. Families feared they would not be able to find similarly welcoming campuses elsewhere.

Meanwhile, city officials contended that the middle schools were too small to be sustainable and offer solid academic programming. P.S. 191’s middle school currently enrolls 126 students, while the Manhattan School for Children has about 130, according to state data.

Yet the pushback put Samuels in an awkward position because Mamdani came into office promising to give families and educators a voice in the policy process.

For his part, Samuels said he wanted to give the acting superintendent of District 3, Reginald Higgins, time to develop his own strategy and build public support.

“He and all the superintendents around the city have to engage locally to collectively come up with proposals that will benefit everyone — and I think I want to give him a chance to do that,” Samuels said.

The administration has shown a willingness to back away from controversial proposals — including a fourth one for the district.

Last month, the city withdrew plans to close the Community Action School after a Center School mom made a racist remark caught on a hot mic while a Community Action Student was testifying at a public meeting. That episode drew international attention and prompted Samuels to promise an expansion of the Education Department’s Black studies curriculum and new parent training.

Michael Elsen-Rooney is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Michael at melsen-rooney@chalkbeat.org

Alex Zimmerman is a senior reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

Our nonprofit newsroom relies on donations from readers to sustain our local reporting and keep it free for all New Yorkers. Donate to THE CITY today.

The post NYC Yanks AI-Themed High School and Shelves Plans To Close UWS Middle Schools appeared first on THE CITY - NYC News.

This article was originally published by Healthbeat, a nonprofit newsroom covering public health published by Civic News Company and KFF Health News. Public health, explained: Sign up to receive Healthbeat’s free New York City newsletter here.

As New York City moves to offer 2,000 free child care seats by September, it falls to the health department to clear background checks for new providers. Concerned by a history of backlogs, the City Council this week held an oversight hearing and heard two proposals seeking to improve the process.

“If our city’s goal is universal child care, then we must ensure that the administration of that care, including the background check process, is as streamlined as possible, and that new facilities and employees don’t get held up in red tape,” City Council Health Committee Chair Lynn Schulman said at the Wednesday meeting.

“We must also ensure the relevant city agencies have the necessary bandwidth to complete these background checks and screenings in a timely manner. Unfortunately, it appears that DOHMH has struggled to keep up since the implementation of these comprehensive background checks,” she said of the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene’s work to comply with federal requirements updated in 2019.

Expanding child care is among Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s priorities, and the city is in the process of issuing contracts to private child care providers who will get city funding to offer the initial 2,000 seats for 2-year-olds this fall.

Officials are rolling out the program in five school districts, covering areas in Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn, and the Bronx. Extensive background checks of the providers applying for licenses are required by law. Once a facility is open, the health department conducts unannounced inspections to promote compliance with health and safety mandates. Inspection results are posted on the health department’s website.

The permitting and inspections of the child care facilities are perhaps among of the lesser-known duties of the health department.

New York City Council Majority Leader Shaun Abreu proposed a bill Wednesday to no longer require the health department to mandate a background check for a prospective child care provider, employee, or volunteer if they have already had one in the past five years and have been employed by a child care provider for more than 180 consecutive days.

A second bill, proposed by Council Member Tiffany Cabán, would require the health department to sooner notify parents and others of child care centers that close because of health hazards. The proposal would also require the health department to post a summary of child care service inspection reports no later than 24 hours after an inspection.

The first bill stems from general concerns that the health department has struggled to process background checks in a timely fashion, with some background checks taking up to a year to be processed.

Backlogged

In 2019, when new federal requirements were implemented statewide, a backlog of background checks stretched into the tens of thousands, according to a committee report submitted with the bill. Some applicants looked for jobs elsewhere as the process lagged, taking an average of 36 days.

The bill highlighted a day care center in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, as an example. The facility could have served up to 170 children but closed its doors in August 2023 because of the lack of approved staff. It was waiting for staff clearance that had been submitted nearly five months earlier. Families with children enrolled in the program were left without child care for two months, while the provider lost over $250,000. Advocates said that such delays were not uncommon.

The health department created an online portal in May 2023 to improve background check processing. The agency testified in October 2023 that it had cleared some 5,000 backlogged applications since the portal was launched and whittled the number of applications to 140.

“Background checks are a critical safety requirement in most jobs, especially when it comes to safeguarding young children,” Council Member Jennifer Gutierrez, chair of the subcommittee on early childhood education, said Wednesday in prepared remarks. “Yet the current process has felt burdensome rather than an important step in safety. State, federal, and city requirements are layered on top of one another in ways that are not always well coordinated.”

Emmy Liss, executive director of the Mayor’s Office of Child Care, said the city was planning to work first with existing child care providers as part of the expansion; they already have a license and staffing.

“We anticipate there will be some new hiring to support 2-K and 3-K as there always is in the lead-up to the first day of school, but we do not expect a huge rush,” Liss said. “We are continuing to monitor what the staffing patterns will look like with our partners at New York City public schools and with the health department to make sure that we are prepared.”

Liss added: “As we prepare for the fall of 2027, when we will be bringing many more 2-K seats online, we’ll be planning ahead with the Department of Health and New York City public schools to ensure that there is sufficient staff capacity for onboarding those providers.”

Corinne Schiff, deputy commissioner for environmental health at the health department, said the agency has hired 60 people in recent years who work solely on background clearances.

Other improvements include an online portal for providers, new access to a Department of Education fingerprint system, and a policy change allowing staff to move between child care centers within a 5-year renewal period without a full new background check, as long as they notify the health department.

The current median processing time is about 30 days, Schiff said, with several hundred applications exceeding the 45-day mark, the deadline as required under federal law.

“Do you have plans in terms of lowering those?” Schulman said. “Five hundred is a lot.”

Schiff said the department was “continuing to make upgrades to the to the portal.” She pushed back on “backlog” characterization, noting that some background checks require working with agencies out of state.

Trenton Daniel is a reporter covering public health in New York for Healthbeat. Contact Trenton at tdaniel@healthbeat.org or on the messaging app Signal at trentondaniel.88.

Our nonprofit newsroom relies on donations from readers to sustain our local reporting and keep it free for all New Yorkers. Donate to THE CITY today.

The post NYC to Ease Health Checks for Child Care Expansion appeared first on THE CITY - NYC News.

City Hall officials met last week with union and labor leaders who are pushing Mayor Zohran Mamdani to veto a controversial City Council bill that would establish anti-protest “buffer zones” around schools and educational facilities.

A representative of Deputy Mayor for Economic Justice Julie Su met via video call with leaders of more than a half a dozen unions and the New York City Central Labor Council, according to multiple sources who were at the meeting or briefed on the talks. 

Su’s representative gave no indication whether Mamdani would issue a veto, according to multiple sources. Last month the Council approved two bills creating protest “buffer zones,” one affecting houses of worship and the other targeting schools and “educational facilities.” 

“Mayor Mamdani is aware of the concerns raised regarding the potential for 175-B to limit the constitutional and labor rights of New Yorkers,” City Hall press secretary Joe Calvello said in a statement on Thursday, referring to the bill’s formal designation. “The Mayor will weigh these concerns seriously as he makes a final decision on this legislation.” 

The meeting came amid a growing pressure campaign from labor and other allies of Mamdani to veto the bill. Last week, several labor and community groups sent a letter urging him to veto the bill, describing it as a “radical overreach” that limits free speech and endangers New Yorkers.

Mamdani Faces Saturday Deadline

The two so-called “buffer zone” bills passed March 26 with the goal of targeting hate crimes across the city, with one bill related to religious sites and the other for schools and education facilities. The bills require the police department to create security perimeters during protests – instructing the NYPD to establish how far away the buffer zones would place demonstrators. 

Two unions that represent large numbers of college and university teaching staff — United Auto Workers Region 9A and Professional Staff Congress/CUNY — are leading the opposition to the bills, claiming that they would restrict their rights to strike or protest in their workplace.

The religious sites bill passed 44 to 5, a veto-proof majority, but the schools buffer-zone bill passed by a 30 to 19 margin — which the mayor could more likely successfully veto. 

Under the city charter, Mamdani has until Saturday to veto the bill or officially sign it into law. If he does neither, it automatically becomes law. 

A spokesperson, Dora Pekec, said Wednesday there was no update to what the mayor would do. 

Council Speaker Julie Menin, a moderate Democrat, pushed for the legislation as part of her efforts to combat antisemitism. She and her allies have maintained that the so-called “buffer zone” proposals are meant to provide greater accountability to the police department’s protest protocols, not to infringe on free speech rights.

Her proposals came as a response to the police’s widely-criticized response to protesters who picketed the Park East Synagogue, which had rented space to an organization that helps Jews move to Israel and to settlements on the occupied West Bank, as well as the 2024 pro-Palestine encampments on college campuses.

The New York Civil Liberties Union and other legal organizations say the bills are Constitutionally dubious.

Menin, speaking at the 92Y in Manhattan on Wednesday evening at an event on “the future of being Jewish in New York,” defended the bills and warned of a potential mayoral veto, City & State reported.

“I really hope that there is not a veto of that legislation, because I think that will lead to more divisiveness when we need less divisiveness,” Menin said.

Labor and community group leaders told THE CITY they were lobbying Council members who voted for the schools bill to change sides in a future vote to override a veto, sending nearly 11,000 emails to the mayor and Council members.

Representatives from multiple unions who met with Su’s team on April 17 expressed a variety of concerns about the bill, including the vagueness around what could be considered an “educational facility,” sources told THE CITY.

THE CITY reached out to several unions who attended the virtual meeting with the deputy mayor’s team. None agreed to comment on the meeting, citing the confidential nature of the conversations. The New York City Central Labor Council also declined to comment.

But some, in addition to the UAW and PSC-CUNY, have gone public with their opposition.

Representatives from healthcare unions, including the Committee of Interns and Residents-SEIU and 1199 SEIU, are among those calling on the mayor to veto the schools bill. They say many teaching hospitals where their members work could technically fall under the bill’s scope — meaning members would be barred from rallying outside in the case of a strike or other union action.

Teamsters Local 804, which represents UPS and Amazon truck drivers, has also called on a veto.

However there is no consensus among labor. 

Kevin Elkins, political director of the carpenters’ union, told THE CITY that his union does not oppose the buffer-zone bills. He said the bills allow the Mamdani administration the ability to implement the buffer zones as it sees fit, and that the union trusts the mayor’s commitment to protect worker and free speech rights.

“I think the mayor has demonstrated his commitment to labor several times over at this point, so I have full confidence in his administration’s ability to do that justly,” Elkins said.

Jewish and Catholic Leaders Voice Support

Religious organizations who favor buffer zones around schools also send their own letters to Mamdani.

“Schools are not just buildings, they are spaces where children should feel safe, supported, and ready to learn,” the letter said. “When access to those spaces is compromised, the impact is immediate and serious.”

The letter was signed by Jewish school leaders as well as the superintendents of schools within the Catholic Archdiocese of New York and the Diocese of Brooklyn, which covers nearly 150 schools across the five boroughs. 

Disclosure: Irizarry Aponte is a PSC-CUNY member in her role as an adjunct instructor at the Craig Newmark School of Journalism at CUNY.

Our nonprofit newsroom relies on donations from readers to sustain our local reporting and keep it free for all New Yorkers. Donate to THE CITY today.

The post Unions Met With Mamdani Team Over Protest ‘Buffer Zone’ Bill appeared first on THE CITY - NYC News.

This story was originally published by Chalkbeat. Sign up for their newsletters at ckbe.at/newsletters.

New York City’s 2026-27 public school calendar is out, and families can expect a long summer, with the first day of school starting on Thursday, Sept. 10.

They can also expect a late start to next summer, with the last day of school falling on Monday, June 28 — a dog-leg day that’s a recipe for low attendance.

Parents and educators have been eagerly awaiting next year’s calendar, which the Education Department quietly released on Tuesday. School typically starts the Thursday after Labor Day, and because September starts on a Tuesday, this year’s first day of school is on the later side, likely causing many parents child care headaches. (Teachers report to work two days before students return.)

New York state requires 180 days of instruction, but it allows for up to four days of teacher professional development to count toward that target, and New York City is using three such days to meet the mandate. That means students will be in class for 177 days in the coming school year. That number does not include the two half days students have scheduled for parent-teacher conferences.

The current school year calendar had 176 days for students, and then on top of that, the city got a waiver from the state for a snow day in February. In general, because New York City’s school day of six hours and 20 minutes is below the national average, students in the five boroughs spend less time in class than their peers across the country.

Here are some other quirks and notable pieces of information about this year’s calendar:

• Election Day, on Nov. 3, will be a remote day for students, unlike this year when students were off.
• School will be off on Good Friday, which is March 26, but not on the Monday following Easter. In 2023, the Education Department added that Monday to the calendar following backlash.
• To avoid some of that backlash, spring break will be from Thursday, April 22 through Friday, April 30, covering all of Passover.
• Although new holidays have been added to the calendar over the past few years, several of them aren’t days off this year: Diwali, the “festival of lights” celebrated by Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs, and Jains around the world, falls on a weekend. Lunar New Year falls during the February mid-winter recess. Juneteenth is on a Saturday.

Education Department officials did not respond to questions about why they scheduled the last day of school on a Monday. When there was a Monday dog-leg day before winter break a few years back, the city ended up giving that as a day off. And this year, the city wound up also granting a day off when students were scheduled to return on Friday, Jan. 2.

City officials also did not respond to questions as to whether they will continue the practice of traditional snow days or will once again pivot to remote learning.

Robert Murtfeld, a parent leader in Manhattan’s District 1, who has been pushing for more family involvement in scheduling the calendar — which is hashed out by the Education Department and teachers union — was disappointed that the city did not immediately notify families upon publishing the calendar.

His district’s Community Education Council, representing Manhattan’s Lower East Side and East Village, passed a resolution earlier this school year calling on the Education Department to make calendar decisions in future years with input from the “broader school community,” including parents and students. In response, Education Department officials wrote, “We are working on creating an online tool for families and others that outlines the school calendar creation process.”

In the end, however, that hasn’t happened, Murtfeld said, adding, “No parents were consulted on the calendar.”

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy atazimmer@chalkbeat.org.

Our nonprofit newsroom relies on donations from readers to sustain our local reporting and keep it free for all New Yorkers. Donate to THE CITY today.

The post A Late Start to Next NYC School Year and Other 2026-27 Scheduling Quirks appeared first on THE CITY - NYC News.

This article was published in partnership with New York Focus.

Each spring, Albany lawmakers decide how to spend hundreds of billions in public money in the state’s famously opaque budget process. New York’s budget is bigger than those of most countries, and outpaces that of every other state except California.

At stake are key questions for New York’s future. Will the state weaken its landmark climate law? Will it speed up the process for building new housing? Boost pensions? How will it deal with the Trump administration’s cuts to health care funding, which threaten to leave hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers without health insurance? How will the state fund Gov. Kathy Hochul’s child care expansion?

With lawmakers having already blown past the official April 1 deadline for passing the budget, the answers to these questions — and many others — are coming down to the wire. 

In the coming weeks, we’ll continue to closely cover the secretive process through which the state’s enormous, far-reaching budget is made. We’ll be analyzing dueling priorities, providing updates on the progress of negotiations, and explaining what it all means for New Yorkers across the state. First, we wanted to give readers a sense of how the budget process works and why it matters.

What is the state budget?

The budget is the state’s plan for how it will spend its money over the next year. It comprises thousands of pages of dense legal language spanning subjects from car insurance to agriculture. This year’s budget will likely allocate over $260 billion, with the biggest shares going to health care and education.

Despite its name, the budget isn’t limited to financial decisions; it’s also frequently used to enact laws that don’t involve spending money. Last year’s budget loosened the rules that require prosecutors to speedily share evidence with defense lawyers, and allowed New York to close several prisons. Hochul’s budget proposal this year would partially roll back a landmark 2019 law requiring the state to dramatically reduce carbon emissions and move towards renewable energy in the coming years.

Where does the money come from?

Most of the money spent in the budget comes from the taxes that New Yorkers pay to the state government. But a sizable portion is cash that the federal government gives New York to provide services ranging from highways and transit to health insurance for low-income residents. 

Hochul’s proposal this year adds up to $260 billion. The Assembly’s is $266 billion, and the Senate’s is $270 billion. Once the dust settles and the negotiations are done, the final budget will likely fall somewhere between those totals.

What are the major steps in the budget process?

Here’s the basic outline:

In the first few weeks of the year, the governor issues the “executive budget,” a comprehensive proposal for how the state should spend its funds.

A couple of months later, generally in early to mid-March, each house of the legislature responds with its own proposal, known as the “one-house budgets.”

The three parties enter into weeks of intense negotiations to resolve the differences. They’re supposed to come to an agreement by April 1, which is the start of the state’s fiscal year, but the process can drag on for days or even weeks past the deadline.

When the parties reach a deal, the legislature votes to approve the final budget, which goes to the governor to be signed into law. Everyone takes a deep breath and starts getting ready to do it again the next year.

Although the process is a three-way negotiation, the governor has the upper hand. The executive budget sets the framework for all subsequent discussion, and if legislators try to add additional spending items to the governor’s proposal, the governor can veto each item individually. That doesn’t generally happen, but the threat of a veto can enable the governor to rein in legislators’ desire to spend more.

When the Senate and Assembly issue their response budget proposals in March — also known as the “one-house” budgets — they’re more opening offers for negotiation than actual plans. No one expects that everything in the one-houses will be put into law. But once all three proposals are out, the subjects for debate are clear.

Who are the key players?

Three key parties dominate the process: the governor, the Senate majority leader, and the Assembly speaker. (They have historically been called the “three men in a room” — though two of them are now women.) Along with their senior advisors and staff, they conduct negotiations behind closed doors. Some key legislators also have significant sway, especially if they chair powerful committees or are longtime members who have built up influence over the years.

Most legislators play a limited role. Their main tools to advance their priorities are to pressure legislative leadership and to use public attention. Republicans generally aren’t included in negotiations. Democrats are kept more in the loop: Each house regularly holds “conferences” where legislative leaders and their staff share updates and get feedback from rank-and-file members as they work toward a deal.

How does our process compare to other states?

New York’s budget process is notoriously opaque. In a 2015 analysis by the Center for Public Integrity, New York ranked dead last among all states for accountability and transparency in its budget process. Not much has changed since then, and good government groups still lament the lack of avenues for citizens to have meaningful input or even follow along.

Perhaps the most glaring example of the lack of transparency is how the legislature actually votes on the budget. The mammoth bills are often introduced just hours before the legislature approves them, offering almost no time for lawmakers — let alone the public — to process and react to the final agreements. Voting often doesn’t finish until the middle of the night, when few New Yorkers are watching.

This isn’t how things are supposed to work. Under the state constitution, bills must be introduced three days before a vote happens to leave time for public debate and scrutiny. But the governor can lift this requirement by issuing a “message of necessity,” allowing the bills to go to a vote immediately. These messages of necessity have become an Albany tradition, to the chagrin of government watchdogs.

Is the entire budget up for negotiation?

Although negotiations over the budget get fierce, not everything is up for debate. In fact, most of the negotiations revolve around just a few billion dollars out of the hundreds that the state will spend.

Significant parts of the budget are more or less on autopilot. State agencies, like the Department of Health or State University of New York, need to be funded every year at roughly the same levels. Medicaid and public education are always the two biggest line items, and don’t generally fluctuate dramatically in cost. 

Neither the governor nor the legislature proposed a budgetary solution for New Yorkers set to be disenrolled this summer from the state’s Essential Plan, which offers health insurance to moderate-income people. Other key policy issues, like efforts to prevent law enforcement from collaborating with ICE, were also left out of this year’s budget, though funding for immigrant legal services is likely to get a boost.

Beyond the required categories of spending, many items in the budget are “optional,” and can be slashed as a wide variety of programs compete for limited funds. Animal shelter funding might see a cut one year, or lawmakers might agree to fund a free bus program, among hundreds of options.

How does the public get involved?

The budget process is always accompanied by a flurry of lobbying, activism and advocacy. White-shoe lobbyists lean on lawmakers on behalf of major corporations and industry groups. Advocates hold rallies around the state and in Albany; a favorite spot within the state capitol is the “Million Dollar Staircase,” an enormous and ornate late-19th century structure that got its name from its exorbitant construction cost. The public’s advocacy also frequently includes civil disobedience, with activists often arrested outside the governor’s office or at other key locations.

Another opening for public input is the legislature’s series of budget hearings. Early each year, the legislature’s committees hold marathon hearings on most major topics covered by the budget, such as taxes, housing and education. Any New Yorker can submit written testimony, and the committees select who will be invited to testify in person.

For comprehensive coverage of the current budget proposals, please read, and revisit, the New York Focus 2026 budget guide, which will be updated when the budget is passed.

Our nonprofit newsroom relies on donations from readers to sustain our local reporting and keep it free for all New Yorkers. Donate to THE CITY today.

The post How the New York State Budget Works appeared first on THE CITY - NYC News.

This story was originally published by Chalkbeat. Sign up for their newsletters at ckbe.at/newsletters.

On the campaign trail, Mayor Zohran Mamdani vowed to take a state mandate to slash class sizes seriously, saying it “will transform our students’ ability to learn.”

“The question of compliance has too often been a negotiation,” Mamdani said on the first day of school in September.

Now, the Mamdani administration is seeking to do just that: negotiate with lawmakers in Albany to give the city more time to comply.

Some of the class size law’s key backers, including its legislative sponsor, seem willing to play ball. State Sen. John Liu, who sponsored the class size law, said he is open to allowing the city to reach full compliance over the next four years instead of the legally required two.

A deal to extend the class size law may come as part of the state budget — and lawmakers could use it as leverage as they simultaneously debate whether to extend Mamdani’s control of the school system, which expires at the end of June. (The state budget, which was due Wednesday, is delayed, and it’s unclear exactly when it will be finalized.)

On the campaign trail, Mamdani said it was “critical” to deliver smaller classes across the system. Here’s why as mayor he’s now pushing for an extension on the class size law.

Under the law, 80% of the city’s public school classrooms must not exceed 20-25 students (depending on the grade level) by this coming school year. All schools must meet the caps by the 2027-28 school year. That goal may be out of reach: Schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels recently told City Council members it would be “very difficult” to hit 80% compliance by September.

The city was only able to hit this year’s 60% benchmark by exempting thousands of classes from the law, despite spending hundreds of millions hiring more teachers and helping schools reconfigure space.

Failing to meet the benchmarks has big consequences. The law includes a provision that calls for hundreds of millions in state funding cuts if the city does not comply. Even the law’s biggest supporters, however, likely want to avoid that outcome.

Mamdani is looking for all the savings he can to close a $5.4 billion budget gap by the city’s July 1 budget deadline. The mayor is banking on a delay of the class size law to help balance the city’s budget, the New York Times reported last week. (A City Hall spokesperson did not respond to questions about the mayor’s push for a delay.)

But having more time to comply with the law might only bring a temporary reprieve. Liu has floated requiring the city to bring 70% of classrooms into compliance this coming September — instead of 80% — with an additional 10% in each of the three following school years.

The state lawmaker pushed back against any move by the Mamdani administration to use the delay to save money.

“Adjustments in the timeline are not meant to provide fiscal relief,” Liu told Chalkbeat, noting that any extension is contingent on the city submitting more detailed plans about how they plan to comply with the law. The Mamdani administration deserves more time to comply because the city is “behind the curve due to the inactions of the previous administration,” Liu added.

The city’s teachers union, a key backer of the class size mandate, said they want to see a clearer plan from the Education Department to build more classroom space before supporting changes to the law. “Only when a real plan and a clear timeline are in place — not the usual School Construction [Authority] smoke and mirrors — would we have the information necessary to consider whether any amendments are needed,” United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew said in a statement.

The mayor’s preliminary budget includes $543 million in additional city funding to reduce class sizes next fiscal year and $943 million in each of the three fiscal years after that — spending that could be pushed back if the legislature changes the timeline for implementing class size reductions. (City officials have previously projected the cost of fully implementing the law could be up to $1.7 billion a year for additional teachers with billions more in school construction costs on top of that.)

In its response to Mamdani’s preliminary budget, City Council indicated the city should convince state lawmakers to pony up for funding to comply with the law, relieving the city of some costs. The state assembly proposed sending the city $600 million to shrink classes, but it’s unclear if that will be included in the final state budget deal.

But in the mayor’s response criticizing the City Council’s plan, he accused them of seeking a delay to the class size law as their sole request from Albany — an ask that does not appear in the council’s budget proposal. Some observers noted that it’s a bizarre critique coming from Mamdani.

“Isn’t [Mamdani] also asking the state for more time to lower class size?” Leonie Haimson, the executive director of the advocacy group Class Size Matters, wrote on X.

A Mamdani spokesperson did not respond to questions about his false characterization of the council’s budget response.

Some of the law’s backers have urged the city to come up with more aggressive plans to build new classrooms for crowded schools that don’t have room to comply with the law.

But there are other solutions the city could use in some cases that would be far less expensive and take advantage of empty seats elsewhere: capping enrollment on crowded campuses or rezonings.

Samuels has also signaled he wants to prioritize using the city’s existing buildings before turning to school construction, though moves to cap enrollment on popular campuses would likely face pushback from families.

“The time in theory gives [Mamdani] the opportunity to get creative about space utilization [and] enrollment,” said Jonathan Collins, a political science and education professor at Columbia University’s Teachers College and a member of the city’s Panel for Educational Policy.

A delay could also give the city more time to grapple with one of the law’s core equity challenges: It requires significant new spending at relatively more affluent schools, where class sizes tend to be bigger, while more high-poverty schools already meet the caps.

A recent report from the Urban Institute, a think tank, found that the city’s lowest-poverty schools have received more funding to reduce class sizes than the city’s highest-poverty schools.

Alex Zimmerman is a senior reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

Our nonprofit newsroom relies on donations from readers to sustain our local reporting and keep it free for all New Yorkers. Donate to THE CITY today.

The post Mamdani Pushes to Delay Class Size Law as Deadline Looms appeared first on THE CITY - NYC News.