Budget Cuts Take a Toll on NYC Public Schools

Manyparents are feeling the effects of the recession and children arefeeling these effects too, not only in their homes, but also in schoolwhere they spend most of their time. New York City budget shortfalls arecausing many schools to have to cut back. Could this affect the qualityof today’s students’ education attending public schools? Some studentsbelieve so.

Oneeffect of the NYC budget cuts  is the lack of textbooks in the classroom.At the Museum School, a high schoollocated in Cheslea, there are notextbooks in the tenth grade English class or math class. Mr. Vincent  Chin, a tenth grade math teacher, hands out textbooks on a disc, which he puts together and pays for himself.

Mr.Aaron Hinds, a history teacher at the High School of GraphicCommunication Arts, in the Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood, says there islittle money to provide supplies at his school.

“Ourindividual vouchers for purchasing school supplies have shrunkento about $150 a year while teachers usually spend several times thatamount,” he said.  “Also, all of a sudden there is no money for office materials. Youknow how teachers love to make photocopied handouts, right? Well, now wehave to get many supplies out of our own pockets. Kids ask us forbasic supplies and there are times when the school cannot afford themand neither can the family.”

ShamliSharma, a senior at Brooklyn Technical High School, a prestigious schoolin Fort Greene, Brooklyn, said her school has little money for sportsteams and little money for new textbooks as well.  This can be frustrating particularly when learning may be based upon outdated material.  Ms. Sharma expressed frustration that that her economics class had very outdated textbooks.

Budget cuts affect the very mission of some schools.  The Museum School has a mission to provide a museum-based curriculum.  Students once spent two days a week learning in museums, but now spend only a single day.  And the quality of the museum curriculum has been cut too. Thecurrent tenth-grade classes once had module teachers, who developed themuseum-based curriculum and ensured that the curriculum was meaningfullyrelated to classroom work. However, as a result of the budget cuts, themodule teachers have been let go, and the regular classroom teachershave taken on this responsibility.

Mr. David  Albin, a tenth-grade English teacher at the Museum School, takes on the added responsibility with enthusiasm.  However, Amy Takase, a junior at the School misses, the energy of the program when it was run as a separate module.  

Amypointed out that her school is very limited in terms of classes andextracurricular activities. She said she resented going to public schooldue to the lack of extra classes and clubs. After being accepted intoher current school, she wanted to give up because there weren’t manyclasses that interested her besides the common five subjects, English,Math, History, Spanish, and the occasional special class in the mornings.  Amy said she hopes things will get better but that the prospects of her school improving seem bleak.

“Theschool needs AP classes and more sports teams because it makes anindividual stand out on their college resumes. Not only for college, itis also limiting to the school’s majority if they aren’t able toparticipate in activities they enjoy,” she said.

Shamli,from Brooklyn Tech, said the budget cuts had affected her own sportsteam and now she and her teammates  have to cover the sport’s expenseswithout the support of the school. “Fundingfor a lot of the popular teams was cut such as basketball and football.Teams that weren’t as popular received no funding such as tennis and itaffected my team because we had to pay for the uniforms with ourparents’ money.”

GabriellaCarr-Molatski, a sophomore attending Eleanor Roosevelt High School onthe Upper East Side, said she hears little of the effect on her schooldue to the recession but that there have been some budget cuts.

“Imean there hasn’t been a lot of budget cuts but some permanentsubstitute teachers were fired due to the cutbacks. When our homeroomteacher is absent, we just get an extra class or two.“

Gabriellasaid she is one of the lucky students. “My school is a new school, andbecause of
this, we are given more funds than other NYC public schools.”

ChelseaGarden, a senior at the Museum School, feels like there is not an equaldistribution of money and resources among schools and classes. “Ifeel that I’m being deprived of an education,” she said. “I hear abouteveryone else’s experiences in their schools and I sort of envy them. Ifeel that the freshman and sophomore years are receiving all of theresources and attention versus the upper-classmen. No one should receivepublic education as a gift. It should all be equal because every schoolshould want their students to succeed to the highest degree.”