budget analysis<\/a> says NYCis at 64% compliance for the 2025-26 school year, above this year\u2019s 60% threshold but short of the 80% required for 2026-27. Asked during a preliminary budget hearing whether planning accounted for demographic changes, DOE officials said they were planning for flat enrollment. <\/p>\n\u201cI think it\u2019s going to be very difficult to get to 80% by September,\u201d Samuels said.\n<\/p>\n
Council members also pressed DOE about possible cuts or efficiencies under Mayor Zohran Mamdani\u2019s savings drive, but officials provided few specifics. Finance Chair Linda Lee (D-Queens) asked what the department had submitted under the administration\u2019s chief savings officer process. Samuels said the department had gone through \u201csignificant deliberations\u201d and submitted a plan while trying to protect schools.<\/p>\n
Mamdani announced in February that agencies would be asked to identify savings equal to 1.5% of their budgets this fiscal year and 2.5% next year, with reports due March 20. amNewYork reached out to City Hall to find out when the reports of the \u201cChief Savings Officers,\u201d members of each agency whom Mamdani appointed to the task of finding savings, would be made public and is awaiting a response.<\/p>\n
Council grills Mamdani\u2019s education chief on achieving class size goals<\/p>\n
The Council analysis says DOE\u2019s preliminary fiscal 2027 plan adds $600 million for class-size compliance, including $542.9 million in city funds and $57.1 million in state funds, with the money intended to support roughly 6,000 teachers, assistant principals and room conversions. The same report says DOE\u2019s proposed fiscal 2027 budget would increase by $2.61 billion from the November plan.<\/p>\n
Lawmakers repeatedly questioned how the city plans to reach the 80% benchmark without losing art rooms, theaters and other specialized spaces. DOE officials said they are relying on principal surveys and school-by-school planning to identify room conversions, annexes and capital needs.\u00a0<\/p>\n
They also said staffing remains a major obstacle, especially in high school license areas. DOE officials said the department hired about 3,700 teachers last year and is trying to expand that pipeline, but shortages remain especially difficult in subjects such as science and world languages. The Council analysis says compliance is especially weak in several outer-borough districts, with Districts 20 and 31 at 50% compliance, and notes that science and world language classes are among the hardest to staff and bring into compliance.<\/p>\n
The hearing also broadened into a larger debate over what falling enrollment should mean for school budgets. Council members asked whether the city would continue its \u201chold harmless\u201d policy, which has protected some schools from enrollment-based budget cuts since the pandemic. DOE officials said no final decision had been made. Later, asked whether consolidation was being considered for under-enrolled schools, officials said such discussions were part of the department\u2019s planning around noncapital strategies.<\/p>\n
That argument is also being made outside City Hall.\n<\/p>\n
In written testimony to the council, the Citizens Budget Commission urged the city to fund schools based on actual enrollment, reconsider hold-harmless funding, merge under-enrolled schools, pause some new construction and seek relief from the class-size mandate \u2014 arguing those steps could save $400 million annually on school funding and at least $1.2 billion annually if the state rescinded the mandate.<\/p>\n
The hearing highlighted other budget pressures as well. The Council analysis says the preliminary plan adds $550 million in fiscal 2027 for special education due process cases, bringing that budget line to $1.55 billion. <\/p>\n
During questioning, DOE officials said a major share of recent growth had come from cases involving students whose families were seeking publicly funded services while attending private schools, and said the city had tightened oversight and made criminal referrals in some cases.<\/p>\n
Early childhood also surfaced repeatedly. DOE officials said the city is working on a new Early Childhood Management System, expected by the end of the calendar year, to give providers better visibility into contracting and payments. They also said the city is \u201caging down\u201d underused pre-K capacity in some neighborhoods as it prepares for a 2-K rollout<\/p>\n
Samuels also used his opening testimony to make a broader appeal to Albany. Along with asking for changes in state funding, he urged lawmakers to extend mayoral control, saying it allows the city to pursue \u201cbig, bold systemwide goals\u201d and respond effectively in crises. Mamdani, who previously opposed mayoral control, has since said it is necessary to advance his education agenda, including expanding child care.<\/p>\n
Chalkbeat<\/a> previously reported that state Sen. John Liu, the lead sponsor of the class-size law, is open to giving the city more time if it produces a credible plan.<\/p>\nAdditionally, on Monday, Samuels said the department would release its \u201cfoundational AI guidance\u201d on Tuesday and that it would include community input before implementation.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kamar Samuels, chancellor of New York City Public Schools, testifies during a New York City Council preliminary budget…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":172887,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[301,9,24,55,54,56,48646],"class_list":["post-172886","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-city-council","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-headlines","tag-new-york-city-news","tag-ny","tag-public-schools-chancellor-kamar-samuels"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172886","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=172886"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172886\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/172887"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=172886"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=172886"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=172886"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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