DOE CAN'T STRING STRINGER

Essential School Funding: Holding DOE Accountable

Dear Friend:

I am writing to update you on an issue my office has been working to address over the last several months. As you may have read, the New York City Department of Education (DOE) has failed to apply for and collect tens of millions of dollars in available federal funding for special needs students--simply because they couldn't fill out forms properly. The result is that local taxpayers have had to pick up the tab for these costly, but essential programs.

Thousands of city parents and guardians get up every morning and go to work to make ends meet - stretching every dollar - and such incompetence by the DOE is staggering.  It's an insult to hardworking New Yorkers, and a mess that must be cleaned up now.
 
Smaller districts around the state have had no problem getting their fair share. Some $558 million has been paid out statewide between 2004 and 2010 as reimbursements for physical, speech and occupational therapy--while New York City has received virtually nothing.

Failing to collect what is due to New York City is an outrage at a time when school budgets are being cut to the bone--a time when students are crammed into overcrowded classrooms, hundreds of school aides have been let go and teachers face the constant threat of layoffs.

Read more about this issue in The New York Times and The New York Observer , as well as in a letter  I wrote to Schools Chancellor Walcott in October, outlining the issue and demanding a full explanation.  

Sincerely,