Educators for Excellence-New York Reacts to New York City Budget

June 30 (New York City) — Amid weeks of city-wide protests for the reallocation of City funding, E4E-New York, a teacher-led organization, expressed their disappointment in budget cuts to education and student supports. 

“My students need more mental-health and academic support to address the most traumatic year of their lives,” said E4E-New York member Yasmin Bailey-Stewart, a high school teacher in Brooklyn. “But the mayor is choosing to prioritize bureaucrats over the students and teachers they serve. They need to go back to the budget and ensure our students have what they need to thrive.”

“We are glad that the mayor decided to hear the voices of our educators about a fundamental idea – the responsibility for school safety lies with a school district, not the police,” said Paula L. White, Executive Director of E4E-New York. “But in a time when students and teachers are facing the greatest challenges they’ve encountered, this budget doesn’t cut it. Teachers will continue to push for the resources they and their kids need to succeed.”

This month, E4E teachers have fought for what students most need to return to and thrive in school, marching in protests against police brutality, sending almost 200 petitions asking for teacher diversity to be prioritized in the budget and demanding that the city demilitarize our schools. Their demands are below: 

Remove all metal detectors from schools;

Retool School Resource Officers to be School Peace Officers that report to the NYCDOE and focus on restorative justice, de-escalation and mediation;

Elevate anti-bias training to sustained anti-racism training
; and

Ensure future cuts don’t disproportionately impact students and teachers of color.

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