In a last-minute announcement on Friday, Mayor Eric Adams revealed that he would be cancelling some cuts to the Department of Education.

Reductions made to the Summer Rising Program and community schools were reversed, just two months after being scaled back.

“I’m happy to announce that we will be able to restore funding and invest new city dollars in our young people and the programs across the city that help them succeed,” Adams said.

The mayor restored $10 million in funding for community schools and $80 million for Summer Rising, which had previously been funded through COVID stimulus funds set to run out soon.

“Those were sun setting dollars for a permanent program. And we realized that we had to find a way to fund a permanent program that has become extremely popular,” Adams said.

Summer Rising for middle schoolers had been reduced from five days a week to four and had their hours cut. The announcement brings hope that the program will be restored to normal.

“It keeps our kids engaged during the summer months, aggressively tackles learning loss from the pandemic and supports our families with childcare and daily meals,” said David Banks, the city’s school’s chancellor.

The announcement was welcomed by the United Federation of Teachers who last month sued the Adams administration over millions in education cuts.

“Needless cuts to community schools and Summer Rising would have been devastating. This is a step in the right direction. Now, the city needs to walk back the other proposed education cuts,” said Michael Mulgrew, president of UFT.

The reversal is the third one this week after Adams restored previous cuts to the fire, police and sanitation departments. It comes less than a week before the mayor unveils his preliminary budget plan.

The city has said budget cuts are necessary to offset the growing costs to house and feed asylum seekers.

The Adams administration has spent more than $3 billion on the migrant crisis, according to City Hall.

However, the city council has questioned these figures and unnecessary reductions amid competing financial projections.

“If we can all agree on how much money we’ve got to work with, then I think we can be more honest about what we need to prioritize,” said City Councilman Justin Brannan.

Brannan, the council’s finance chair, noted local lawmakers had suggested weeks ago that there was revenue available to offset some cuts.

“The council put out a new economic forecast, and it said that through the remainder of FY24 and FY25 that we were seeing just about $1.5, $1.6 billion over what OMB [Office of Management and Budget] was saying,” said Brannan.

The reversals have raised questions about City Hall management abilities and the actual scale of the crisis. The city’s budget director emphasized that there is still a significant fiscal gap.

“The mayor decided to restore about $200 million. This is not moving in a different direction. This has nothing to do with the forecast. It’s just a priority of the mayor,” said city budget director Jaques Jiha.