New York City’s teachers union sues Mayor Eric Adams over steep cuts to public schools

“From time to time, friends disagree,” Adams says in response to lawsuit over move to cut $550 million in budget for city’s schools over migrant crisis

NEW YORK (AP) — New York City’s teachers union is suing to block planned cuts to the city’s public schools, warning that steep budget reductions proposed by Mayor Eric Adams would weaken key education initiatives and violate state law.

For months, Adams has argued that slashing city spending — including a $550 million cut in education funding — is necessary to offset the rising costs of New York’s migrant crisis. But in a lawsuit filed in state court on Thursday, the United Federation of Teachers accused the mayor of exaggerating the city’s fiscal woes in order to push through a “blunt austerity measure” that is both illegal and unnecessary.

The lawsuit rests on a state law that prevents New York City from reducing school spending unless overall revenues decline. Because the city 

While he has acknowledged the cuts will be “extremely painful to New Yorkers,” Adams has urged city residents to hold the White House accountable for not sending sufficient aid to address the migrant crisis. And he has warned even deeper cuts may be needed to address the budget shortfall, which he projects will hit $7 billion in the coming fiscal year.

A recent analysis from the Independent Budget Office, meanwhile, appears to bolster the unions’ contention that the city’s fiscal crisis is not as dire as the mayor has made it out to be. According to the agency, the city will end the fiscal year in June with a budget surplus of $3.6 billion, leading to a far more manageable budget gap next year of $1.8 billion.

In the lawsuit, the teachers union cites the estimate as proof that Adams’ “calculatingly foreboding” picture of New York City’s finances is not based in reality.

“The Mayor’s recent actions,” the suit alleges, “are driven more by a ‘crisis’ of budget management, leadership and problem solving, as opposed to an influx of migrants to New York.”

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