NYC students to protest school funding cuts as Adams preps budget

LOWER MANHATTAN (PIX11) — New York City students will stage a walkout Thursday to rally against cuts to school funding as Mayor Eric Adams prepares to share his preliminary budget plans for the upcoming fiscal year.

Students from across the five boroughs are expected to converge on City Hall in Lower Manhattan around 1:30 p.m., just about 30 minutes before Adams is scheduled to begin his presentation.

The youths are urging city officials to not slash the education budget further following hundreds of millions of dollars in cuts in the last fiscal year. They’re also calling for the restoration of arts programs, extracurricular activities, social services, and classroom resources lost to the previous cuts.

Following a protracted legal battle over the summer of 2022, an appeals court ruled that $469 million in Department of Education budget cuts, ordered by Adams and DOE Chancellor David Banks, could proceed. The court also found, however, that the city did not follow state procedures when it approved the education budget, a decision that could change how future city budgets are passed.

The City Council approved the budget, only for some members to later claim that they were misled about the extent of the cuts and pass a resolution unsuccessfully demanding their reversal.