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| Nathaniel Brooks for The New York Times |
N.Y. TIMES
Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and legislative leaders announced on Saturday an agreement on a state budget that would provide $300 million for prekindergarten in New York City, but also undercuts other educational policies of Mayor Bill de Blasio, who has championed prekindergarten while trying to slow the spread of charter schools.
At the same time, lawmakers rejected most of the governor’s proposals to strengthen New York’s campaign fund-raising laws. But surprisingly, Mr. Cuomo said that if concessions that he had received passed with the budget, he would disband a powerful commission he had assembled to investigate corruption in the state’s scandal-plagued government.
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| Reporters with Dean G. Skelos, Republican leader of the State Senate, on his way to a budget meeting on Friday. Lawmakers rushed to finish the budget before the next fiscal year begins. Credit Nathaniel Brooks for The New York Times |
The agreement also includes several tax changes, including a new property tax rebate for homeowners outside of New York City and a higher threshold for when estate taxes are owed. Lawmakers also moved to reduce the burden on students from tests aligned with the more rigorous set of curricular standards known as the Common Core.
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The agreement on prekindergarten offered a conclusion to months of high-stakes maneuvering between Mr. Cuomo and Mr. de Blasio, who are both Democrats. The governor rejected the mayor’s efforts to pass a tax increase on high-earning city residents, but in the end, Mr. de Blasio emerged with most of the money he says he needs to expand preschool.
The mayor had sought about $340 million for the prekindergarten expansion, which would offer free full-day classes to 4-year-olds; the budget pact allocates that much money for the entire state, with most of it designated for the city. At a news conference in the Rockaways in Queens on Saturday, Mr. de Blasio called the budget agreement “an extraordinary and historic step forward for New York City.”
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| New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio is shown with Senator Charles Schumer on Saturday, March 29, 2014 in Queens. (Credit: Howard Schnapp) |
While Mr. de Blasio expressed happiness over the prekindergarten financing, the budget also provided a major victory for charter schools, many aspects of which the mayor has long criticized.
Most significantly, the legislation would require the city to find space for charter schools inside public school buildings or pay much of the cost to house them in private space. The legislation would also prohibit the city from charging rent to charter schools, an idea Mr. de Blasio had championed as a candidate for mayor.
Mr. de Blasio had resisted the idea that he should be required to accommodate charter schools, which are publicly financed but are typically managed by nonprofit groups. While he approved the majority of requests for space from charter schools in February, he canceled plans for three schools affiliated with a high-performing network known as Success Academy Charter Schools, arguing that they would crowd out traditional school programs.
But advocates of charter schools organized a multimillion-dollar advertising campaign and flooded the capital with protesters.
With his popularity sagging in polls, Mr. de Blasio worked aggressively to ease tensions with charter school advocates. But his efforts came too late; Mr. Cuomo and Republicans in the State Senate were already working in private to provide a lifeline to charter schools, seizing on what they saw as the mayor’s political weakness.
Under the budget agreement, charter schools would receive more money per student. The schools, previously barred from operating early education programs, would also be eligible for grants for prekindergarten.
Michael Mulgrew, president of the United Federation of Teachers, the union of the city’s teachers, said the proposed changes amounted to favoritism for charter schools at the expense of students in traditional public schools.
Charter schools in New York City will now enjoy some of the greatest protections in the country. And Mr. de Blasio’s control of city schools was unmistakably questioned, more than a decade after the state granted his predecessor, Michael R. Bloomberg, authority over education.
“This is a land grab, a power grab,” said Diane Ravitch, an education historian who endorsed Mr. de Blasio during his campaign. “They loved mayoral control when it was Mayor Bloomberg, but now it’s a progressive mayor, and they’re gutting it.”
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In addition to the rebates for homeowners outside of New York City, the budget includes a modest tax credit for some homeowners and renters in all five boroughs. It also reduces the state’s corporate income tax rate, overhauls how the state taxes the banking industry and decreases taxes for manufacturers.
And Mr. Cuomo and Mr. de Blasio managed to settle their latest dispute, which emerged only in the past week. The governor agreed to change budget language that city officials said would have hindered their efforts to start a rent-subsidy program to help homeless families stay out of shelters.