By Matthew Monks
The projects are just some casualties of Mayor Michael Bloomberg's plan to cut $1.3 billion in school construction funds and delay another $781 million, City Council Speaker Gifford Miller (D-Manhattan) said during a news conference last Thursday outside IS 10 in Astoria.”We're not talking about the luxuries. We're talking about the basic necessities,” said Miller, who is expected to challenge the Republican mayor in this year's election.The cuts would hurt tens of thousands of Queens students, Miller said, by delaying repairs to toilets in 24 schools, repairs to fire alarms in 37, upgrades to science labs in 13, and replacements of windows in 15. “Here we see a clear failure of leadership,” said City Councilwoman Eva Moskowitz (D-Manhattan), chairwoman of the Council's education committee. “It's an outrage. If the mayor won't help our children, we will.”The windows of IS 10, which are cracked and boarded over, were slated for $3 million in repairs in 2007. The mayor's plan would delay the project until 2008, said City Councilman Peter Vallone Jr. (D-Astoria).”Our children will have to suffer until then,” Vallone said. “That's not the right choice.”The city's Department of Education spokesman Jerry Russo denied that the projects were permanently derailed and contended they were just deferred by Gov. George Pataki's decision to appeal a state court decision that would send $9.2 billion in capital funds to city schools. Bloomberg, who was counting on the funds for his $13 billion, five-year capital school construction plan, said the holdup forced him to delay many projects. “It's totally irresponsible for people to misrepresent the facts for their own political purposes,” Russo said. “There are simply no cuts in the most ambitious capital plan in the city's history and anyone who understands the facts realizes that.”Reach reporter Matthew Monks by e-mail at news@timesledger.com or by phone at 718-229-0300, Ext. 156.
