Life in the New York City public school system has been pretty good for a long time. They had a regular supply of easy-to-indoctrinate kids, a limitless budget to do it with, and jobs the union members couldn't lose.
But it turns out that once the kids started disappearing, the rest of the structure starts to look a liiiittle shaky:
Schools Chancellor David Banks addressed the City Council's education committee Monday on the proposed education budget, which accounts for student enrollment predictions and trends. Previously during the pandemic, schools did not lose funding if enrollment dropped.
According to the department, 120,000 students and families have left city schools over the last five years.
'How many more will come back? We don't know. So we have to hope for the best but plan for the worst,' Banks told the committee.
Not that they asked me, but I'd put my money on "plan for the worst." Two years of insane pandemic theater—forcing the kids to strap hot pieces of cloth fabric to their faces for eight hours a day, a teacher base that broadly seems to despise the kids they're teaching—it wasn't a good look for the New York City Department of Education. People don't forget!
To bridge the gap, meanwhile, school authorities are turning to an unlikely source:
Banks added many schools experienced 'big changes' in enrollment over the last few years that have not yet been reflected in their budgets. To soften the blow next school year and the following, the system will spend $160 million and $80 million in federal funding to partially make up those losses.
LOL! Just kidding. "Reach for federal money when you screw up your own budget" is a time-honored tradition in that city.
Prayers up for the unfortunate kids who are still in the New York school system when it really starts to crumble!
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