City Council members are giving failing grades to Mayor de Blasio's proposed education budget, telling Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza the proposed cuts are unacceptable.
"I am not a happy camper when it comes to this budget Mr. Chancellor," Councilman Mark Treyger, a Brooklyn Democrat and chair of the education committee, said.
Mayor de Blasio asked each city agency to find budget savings, and the Education Department responded with $104 million in reductions. The proposed cuts include slowing the rollout of breakfast in classrooms and eliminating extended learning time in the city's struggling schools.
"We sought to minimize the impact to school budgets but had to make some very hard choices," Carranza said.
At Middle School 50 in Brooklyn, extended learning time led to the creation of a debate team that's heading to a national competition.
"Their performance rate is going up their attendance rate is going up everything that you would ask for they have done, this school has done it, and now they're being threatened," said Councilman Antonio Reynoso, a graduate of the school.
Carranza said restoring the extended time was a priority.
"One of the priority areas that we have is if there is additional dollars this is one of those things that is prioritized to come back."
The hearing also touched on what's likely to become a major flashpoint in budget negotiations between the mayor and the Council -- giving universal pre-Kindergarten teachers who work for community-based organizations pay parity with pre-k teachers employed by the city.
"I have met with a number, a significant number of providers across the five boroughs. They are in huge distress. They cannot retain educators they keep losing staff," Treyger said.
"There is active work and conversation happening around that. Now the particulars around what would be the funding mechanism, I don't have that detail," Carranza said of talks on the issue.
The mayor has until June 30th to reach an agreement with the City Council on a budget not just for Department of Education, but for the entire city.