Opinion | NYC starts school year off right by extending funding for programs at risk

New York City Mayor Eric Adams welcomes students and families to the first day of school at PS 257 John F. Hylan in Brooklyn on Thursday, September 5, 2024. Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office

It’s the start of a new school year, and you can feel the energy all over New York City. Kindergarteners are zipping up their backpacks for the first time. High schoolers are checking their class schedules and comparing notes with friends. Teachers are putting the finishing touches on their classrooms. Our schools are buzzing with activity, the air is electric, and there’s all the promise that a new school year brings.

But it’s important to remember: This school year could have been very different. This was the year that the rest of our $7 billion in federal stimulus funding was set to expire, and the loss of those dollars would have been felt deeply in every one of our schools. As a public school graduate, I know how a quality education can provide opportunities for decades to come and how critical a child’s education is to working families who rely on our schools to educate and care for their children year-round.

Fortunately, we have been able to use our stimulus money in recent years.

We expanded Summer Rising, our wildly popular summer program, by 110,000 seats, providing enriching programming for our students during the summer months and a breath of fresh air for working parents. We placed 5,000 social workers and guidance counselors in schools to keep the focus on the mental health needs of our students, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic.

We launched innovative college and career pathways programs and invested in community colleges to ensure our young people have what they need to succeed in their careers for life. We also improved the services our students need most, including funding coordinators in homeless shelters, expanding our bilingual programs, and increasing early childhood placements for students with disabilities.

For months, we worked closely with the New York City Council to finally finalize a budget that invested over $600 million to protect these programs for our city’s children and keep school budgets intact. This ensures that the great initiatives mentioned above will continue for our students and families this school year, along with other impactful programs like literacy and dyslexia interventions, arts education, “Civics for All,” computer science education, and more.

A critical area that was also funded by temporary stimulus dollars was the citywide expansion of 3-K. Through the budget, we protected the 3-K program as it transitions from its original stimulus funding source by allocating $92 million in city funds, while also adding $100 million to implement a strategic plan that will strengthen early childhood education and support students and their families into the future.

Early childhood education is key to protecting working families. Our report, “Blueprint for Child Care and Early Childhood Education in New York City,” found that nearly 375,000 parents quit or downgraded their jobs due to COVID-19 and lack of access to quality child care. For mothers, the decision to leave work to care for a child could cost them up to $145,000 in lost earnings over their lifetime.

That’s why we’ve prioritized developing an early childhood program that works in the long term. We’ve seen results in accessibility and affordability, with the number of children enrolled in child care increasing to 150,000 in our system and the out-of-pocket cost per child decreasing from an average of $55 per week to less than $5 per week.

We are grateful to the Biden-Harris administration and our partners in Congress for providing stimulus funding during an unprecedented pandemic. These programs provided critical support to schools, students, and families. They also set a new standard for what quality education looks like in our city. As the 2024-25 school year approached, we were determined to uphold that standard. The pandemic was over, but that didn’t change the fact that students and families needed and deserved these services.

We will soon be able to go a step further, as New York State is revising its Foundation Aid formula. This presents an opportunity for an even more equitable funding stream to our public schools, provided it is adjusted to provide the academic achievement, services, and programming our students deserve.

At a time when other cities are cutting education budgets, laying off teachers, closing schools, and eliminating pandemic-era programs, we are doubling down on the support and services that have proven essential in recent years. We are holding that high educational bar high. This is a true example of city government breaking down silos and working together for the benefit of everyday New Yorkers. And the effects will be felt across our city.

Stronger schools mean better outcomes for our children. They encourage families to move to New York. They make our city more affordable, more livable, and more opportunity-filled.

This year, had our city’s leaders not intervened, schools likely would have reopened with a dispiriting and pervasive sense of loss: loss of key staff, loss of beloved programs, loss of groundbreaking services. Instead, the new school year will feel like September should: full of excitement, positivity, and endless opportunities to learn and grow.