Concerned parent JoAnn Berger (holding sign) was joined by other parents and kids who are angry over school budget cuts at PS 153 in Maspeth.Nearly a month after the city released grim school budget projections, parent leaders in Queens say the planned cuts bode poorly for well-performing schools in hard-working neighborhoods.
Overall, Queens - with 298 schools - took a greater portion of the $162 million cut than any other borough.
Queens has 20% of city public schools but took 27% of the cuts, or $43,686,146. The average loss per school in Queens - $146,108 - far outpaced the city average of $104,415, and surpassed all boroughs except Staten Island.
City officials are lobbying Albany to loosen regulations on $63 million in unspent state funds, in hopes the money can be spent to buffer the cuts instead of on earmarked educational programs.
Parent leaders in Queens are fuming that the bed made by Mayor Bloomberg's budget is the one the kids must lie in.
"It's all negatively impacting them," said Jo Ann Berger, a parent of three children at Public School 153 in Maspeth.
Principal Susan Bauer recently said $646,000 will be cut, meaning the school will lose two full-time teachers, its academic intervention team and several part-time teachers who helped coach students in need of extra help. The school will also cut back on supplies and educational materials.
The city estimates that PS 153 will lose only $296,136, but that figure includes an adjustment for anticipated funds that are not immediately available.
"If they need to make cuts, they need to look in-house first," Berger said of the Education Department. "There has been mismanagement in spending monies out, contracting work out."
Dmytro Fedkowskyj, the Queens representative on the Panel for Educational Policy, pointed out that the current "student-driven funding" plan can hurt schools in middle-class areas, like Middle Village's PS 128. That school is slated to lose $377 per student, the most in the city.
"We are fortunate that we have a number of high-performing schools, but if your borough was made up of a number of lower performing schools, more money would be driven to your borough," Fedkowskyj said.
He said he hopes the city will reconsider the cuts before his panel votes on the budget on Monday.
Robert Caloras, a parent leader whose son attends Junior High School 67, blamed Mayor Bloomberg for the problem and proposed repealing the city's $400 property tax credit.
"I would rather my son have a guidance counselor in eighth grade helping him with high-school applications . . . than me buying seed for my lawn," Caloras said. "It's a self-created crisis."
