State judge appears poised to reverse cuts to NYC school budgets

A Manhattan judge appears poised to reverse cuts to public school budgets — suggesting that the city violated state law during the approval process.

The ruling by New York State Supreme Court Judge Lyle Frank expected Friday could possibly throw out the Department of Education’s entire $37 billion budget approved for next year and allow the City Council to recast its June vote passing the allocation that included the hundreds of millions in cuts.

“As we await a final court order, we hope the court will recognize that an entirely new budget process a month from the start of the school year will only bring further uncertainty,” said Mayor Eric Adams in a statement.

The unusual judicial order was sought by a group of parents and teachers who filed a suit against the city over the budget slashes, which are tied to plunging enrollment in public schools.

Frank at a court hearing on Thursday continued his temporary restraining order issued July 22 that stopped the city from moving forward with the cuts, keeping school funding at the levels outlined last year.

The plaintiffs argue that the city flouted state law by passing a budget that included at least $215 million in cuts, a small portion of the overall DOE budget, without prior approval from the department’s oversight board.

City lawyers countered that an “emergency declaration” issued by Schools Chancellor David Banks allowed them to bypass the panel and put the cuts into effect at the school level.

But Frank found that the declaration, though not unusual, “should have a good reason.”

“If it’s called an emergency declaration, it really should be an emergency,” the judge said.

Once formally issued, the city will be able to appeal the order. Still, Frank asked lawyers on both sides to recommend language that would prevent his order from infringing on the overall city budget.

Several logistical questions remain to be ironed out, as principals make key hiring decisions and just weeks before schools reopen for the fall, including what funding the city would tap if the cuts are reversed. 

“This is about our children,” said Tamara Tucker, a mom of two kids at PS 125 in Harlem and the named plaintiff in the case, at a rally outside the court in Foley Square. “These budget cuts have already wreaked havoc on our schools, and unless they are restored will have very real consequences for students in the fall.”

The cuts are a small share of the DOE’s overall budget, but a large chunk of principals’ individual allocations. City Comptroller Brad Lander’s office found that the original reductions averaged $402,456 in cuts per individual school budget, or 8% of what principals get to spend on staff and programs.

Close to 1,200 schools were set to have slimmer budgets amid plunging student enrollment, but the fewer than 400 schools with increased enrollment were slated to get increased funding. Some federal stimulus dollars were used to gradually phase in a pre-pandemic policy that tied school budgets to student enrollment.

Banks in a statement Thursday evening said the DOE awaits “clarity about how the court’s ultimate decision impacts our preparation for reopening this September.”

Laura Barbieri, special counsel for Advocates for Justice, representing the plaintiffs, said attorneys could propose language for the judge’s anticipated ruling that would allow for no schools to lose funding as a result of the order.

The city’s lawyers made the argument  that the DOE line items could not be divorced from the overall city budget, which was balanced and voted on as a whole. But the plaintiffs’ attorneys denied that such remedy was not possible.

The city attorneys also cited The Post’s reporting that Speaker Adrienne Adams and other council members were aware of enrollment-related cuts, and voted to greenlight them anyway for the sake of the overall city budget.

In the months since the budget was finalized, council members have said the DOE misrepresented that many cuts to staff positions would be vacancies. Roughly 700 teachers were let go by their schools facing enrollment declines, though they were still on the payroll, but without placements.

Adams announced Wednesday that he would loosen the guidelines on $100 million in COVID aid sent to principals for academic recovery — allowing them to repurpose those funds to hire teachers. The administration also began to dole out $34 million to some schools that had appealed their allocations.

The vast majority of the council signed onto a letter last month calling on City Hall to use federal stimulus funds to cover the gaps. Lander has said that an estimated $505.6 million in federal COVID funds allocated last year had yet to be committed, and called on the city to use that cash to cover the cuts. The city has denied that those funds are available.

The mayor, at an unrelated press conference on Thursday, committed to following the court rulings.

“We’re going to find out what the judge states, and we’re going to move forward. We’re going to do everything that we must do to make sure our schools are open,” said Adams.

“I’m a mayor that’s focused on giving the schools the resources they need, and I’m proud of that,” he added.

The city Law Department declined to comment on the hearing.

Additional reporting by Bernadette Hogan