CCC Testimony: New York City Council Finance and Education Committee Hearing on Fiscal Year 2015 Preliminary Budget Proposals

Published March, 2014

CCC testified about the budget proposals in the FY15 Preliminary Budget related to education, as well as offered recommendations for strategies to improve educational outcomes for New York City’s students, at the hearing of the City Council Finance and Education Committees, held on March 20, 2014.

While the FY15 Preliminary budget makes important investments in programs that help children begin school prepared to learn and to keep middle school students engaged after school, there is still significant work to be done to improve educational outcomes for the nearly 1 million public school students.

CCC’s testimony applauds the administration for baselining funding and planning to expand full-day universal pre-kindergarten to every 4-year old and after-school to every middle school student.  We urged the Council and Administration to ensure City Council education initiatives, such as C.H.A.M.P.S, Urban Advantage Science Education, and Teacher’s Choice, be restored and baselined in the Executive Budget.

CCC also made recommendations for investments to strengthen New York City’s education system moving forward. These include:

• Investing in strategies to help schools identify struggling students and intervene to keep them on track;
• Implementing school meals programs, such as universal lunch and Breakfast After the Bell, citywide;
• Ensuring all schools have the resources to offer physical education in compliance with New York State regulations;
• Expanding school-based health and mental health services.