NEW YORK — Mayor Bill de Blasio announced all New York City public schools will receive their fair share of funding under a new, historic investment.
For the 2021-22 academic year, 100% of “Fair Student Funding” (FSF) will be available for all city public schools, according to the mayor.
“Fair student funding means more money directly into classrooms serving our students. We know what this funding means: higher graduation rates, lower dropout rates and more students getting into college,” Mayor de Blasio said Monday.
For the first time ever, the investment, which is driven by equity, will allow schools to bring more resources to classrooms and further serve students, particularly those requiring academic intervention, students with disabilities and multilingual students, the mayor said.
Under the new investment, valued at more than $600 million, principals have the opportunity to make decisions for their schools as different students and schools have different needs.
“For years our students were short changed, not millions, but billions of dollars,” Schools Chancellor Meisha Ross Porter said.
“Achieving one hundred percent fair student funding is a historic and game-changing investment that will further equity across all of our schools and provide greater resources, such as staff, materials, supplies, and more,” she said.
The FSF is the primary source of funding for individual school budgets, and the city has fought for decades to bring all schools to 100% FSF.
When asked if schools, which have been underfunded, are at “full capacity” funding-wise, the mayor says everything is about the children.
“The resources we’re finally getting are going to be put to good use.” “I don’t think of it as money, I think of it as a tool to change lives for our kids.”
The mayor said the city needs to make sure the funding is sustained.
Chancellor Porter said there is never a moment when we stop investing in our systems, especially in schools.
