Rep. Ocasio-Cortez Calls for Increased Funding for Schools and Childcare Across New York

 

 Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez released a statement advocating for additional school funding, as schools begin to re-open despite parent and teacher concerns around COVID-19 safety protocols and staffing in many of our cities schools.

"After hearing from parents and school staff across the district, it’s clear that there’s significant evidence to suggest that schools are not safe to re-open. Poorly ventilated and unsanitized classrooms, ambiguous or ineffective health screening, COVID testing and contact tracing protocols, and severe staffing shortages, on top of COVID cases in at least 55 schools, all indicate we are not ready to re-open. At the same time, working parents desperately need relief from full-time childcare and work. But we do not actually have to choose between unsafe schools and childcare for parents. I’m calling on Mayor de Blasio and Governor Cuomo to raise revenue to fund universal childcare programs, significantly increase staffing at schools, and fund the infrastructure improvements, including ventilation, that our school buildings need to be safe. In June, the Mayor pushed for a budget that cut more than $700M from schools, but cut almost nothing meaningful from NYPD. The state still owes NYC schools $3.9B in Foundation Aid funding. We are in this situation because we have balanced our budgets on the backs of students for decades. 

Staff at NYC schools have worked tirelessly since the start of the pandemic to provide the best education they can with very few resources. They deserve all of our gratitude and appreciation, but they also deserve the resources they need to succeed. Our kids and communities deserve for us to get this right."

EDITOR'S NOTE:

In a time of deep budget cuts due to a great loss of revenue, we have to ask Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez this question.

Where do you expect the mayor and governor to find the extra money needed when every area in the budgets of the city and state are being asked to cut spending?

Perhaps the needed monies can come from the federal government in any one of the many funding streams already available?