Tuesday, June 24

(squeak) budget passes PEP


The Panel for Educational Policy (PEP) passed the executive budget last night. Only one member, Manhattan representative Patrick Sullivan, voted nay. Sullivan said he was concerned that more resources were devoted to testing and charter schools while the bread-and-butter, general education classes that serve the majority of students would suffer from the cuts. Of course considering the mayor appoints 8 of the members of the panel (the 5 others are appointed by the borough presidents), it is not surprising that they passed his budget - especially in light of the mayor's history of firing members who don't agree with his decisions.

The meeting was scantily attended, despite the uproar over the budget cuts over the past few weeks, and many of the public comments had nothing to do with the budget vote. Meanwhile, one uninvited participant - a small brown mouse - darted around the audiences' feet at the MLK High School Complex auditorium. Chancellor Klein, who looked exhausted, sounded relieved to close the session and the monthly PEP meetings for the school year.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

So...does that mean 5% and 6% budget cuts officially ARE going to happen at the high-performing schools?

Tanner Kroeger said...

trudirose,

As I understood Katherine Grimm explain it last night, PEP's approval is the final stamp before the mayor and City Council duke it out.

So, no, this is not the final budget. But it's one step closer to becoming so. Check out the Insideschools calendar and this blog to stay up-to-date on the budget this summer.

And if someone understands this PEP approval differently, then let us know.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for reporting on the meeting.

The PEP is supposed to approve a budget sufficient to cover operations of the school in the coming year. Manhattan Borough President Stringer and I decided to vote against it because the proposed budget called for cuts to the schools, so it was hardly sufficient. While it's not entirely clear how who wins and loses in the budget deal, it is clear that the Council and Mayor agreed with us, ignored the Panel decision, found the funding level to be insufficient, and added more funding.

For a fuller explanation of our rationale, please see Borough President Stringer's letter posted on the NYC Public School Parents blog.