Enough with the funding cuts already.
City Councilmember Lew Fidler delivered that message at a Mill Island Civic Association meeting following Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s unveiling of a lean executive budget for the coming fiscal year.
Fidler was particularly frustrated by the mayor’s plans for further budget cuts to the public school system.
“I was disappointed today,” he said at the Sunrise assisted living facility at 5905 Strickland Avenue.
In spite of parents’ calls for full funding for the city Department of Education (DOE), Bloomberg “has not added a penny back to his proposed cuts to education,” Fidler said.
Instead, he’s asking the City Council to approve funding cuts for all city agencies, including $324 million deducted from the DOE’s allocation.
The loss of that money will mean the elimination of after-school programs and limiting of professional development workshops for teachers. Schools could also lose teachers, thereby increasing class size.
Fidler says City Council members
