Just a week after announcing the addition of eight new schools in Queens, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and other political officials met to demand that state lawmakers and Gov. Pataki send the court mandated funds to complete city school construction projects.
According to Bloomberg, New York State is required to provide funding for Department of Education (DOE) capital projects under the Campaign for Fiscal Equity (CFE). However, he said they have failed to provide such resources, putting 21 buildings or approximately 15,000 classroom seats citywide in jeopardy.
“It’s time for the state to end its delinquency. The state must do what’s right and meet its duties to our city’s schoolchildren,” Bloomberg said. “New York City public schools are being shortchanged year after year and the courts have determined that the state has a constitutional obligation to provide critical funding.”
Due to the lack of state funding, the city is short close to $1.8 billion needed for projects.
“Unless the state meets its obligation, 15,000 classroom seats, new schools, libraries, labs and gyms will be postponed,” Bloomberg said at Monday’s press conference.
Such delays would affect a total of 21 new construction projects, with nine of those schools being in Queens. These nine schools should be able to accommodate 4,872 students.
There are also 11 schools that the city has already begun preliminary work on that may also be put on hold if the state does not give money to the city. Three Queens schools holding an estimated 2,700 students are included in this category.
In response to this, the mayor, along with Schools Chancellor Joel Klein, urged New Yorkers to contact State Assembly members, State Senators and Governor George Pataki and insist that the city receive the funding it is due from Albany.
“New York State continues to neglect its constitutional duty as ordered by the New York State Supreme Court in the Campaign for Fiscal Equity,” Klein said. “As a result, too many of our students will be relegated for yet another year to inadequate classrooms and to schools without libraries, laboratories, gymnasiums or playgrounds. This is unacceptable. The state owes our children their fair share.”
New QUEENS projects delayed:
School Name Seats
P.S. 245 ECC Seneca Ave 441
P.S. /I.S. 110 Metropolitan Ave 630
P.S. 246 ECC at P.S. 199 441
P.S. 224 ECC at Franklin Ave 441
P.S. /I.S. 262 at St. Anthony’s 441
P.S. /I.S. 167 Metropolitan Ave 630
P.S. 78 Annex 41
New Gateway High School 805
High Schools Metropolitan Ave 1,002
Schools where work has been done:
School Name Seats
St. Bartholomew School 250
M.S. /H.S. 800 (Old P.S. 3 Site) 800
Art and Leather Building H.S. 1,650
Let Albany Know Schools Matter
“I made an announcement that no mayor wants to make: Twenty-one new school buildings with 15,000 new seats will now be delayed indefinitely, as well as nearly 40 new science labs, more than 40 new art facilities, nearly 60 new athletic facilities, 15 new libraries, nearly 20 technology upgrades, and almost 20 new heating systems. We had planned to start every one of these projects this year with money that the state is legally obligated to pay us. Call your Assemblyperson. Call your State Senator. Call the Governor’s Office. (And if you need their phone numbers, just call 3-1-1.) The future of our children is too important. So make your voice heard – and help us create the first-rate school system our children need and deserve.” — Mayor Michael Bloomberg
