Elected officials and public school advocates rallied Tuesday morning on the steps of Tweed Courthouse in lower Manhattan to protest federal cuts to NYC public school funding made in President Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” recently enacted into law.
The group included City Comptroller Brad Lander, Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, City Council Members Rita Joseph (D-Brooklyn) and Eric Bottcher (D-Manhattan), and state Sen. Jabari Brisport (D-Brooklyn), and advocates representing the American Federation of Teachers, Make the Road New York, the Council of School Supervisors & Administrators, New York Immigration Coalition, Advocates for Children, and United Way of New York City.
During the rally, speakers thanked Attorney General Letitia James for leading a nationwide coalition of 23 attorneys general in suing the Trump administration for the cuts to education. With the passage earlier this month of the reconciliation bill, the federal Department of Education froze an estimated $7 billion in funding appropriated by Congress for public schools across the country.
Lawmakers estimate that over $463 million of the funding was owed to New York City public schools.
“Every child, no matter where they live in the city, where their family comes from, or where their learning needs, deserves access to quality education,” said Joseph, the chair of the council’s Education Committee. “And the way we deliver that is a partnership between the city, state and federal government. Yet, instead, we have a Trump administration that has frozen billions in funding to school districts.”
On Friday, the Trump administration announced it would unfreeze some federal funds, which were designated for after-school and summer programming, English and adult learner classes, and teacher preparation courses. The freeze in education funds ruffled some Republican feathers as Congress considered the bill, which was opposed by all Democrats in the Senate and House.
“Let’s not be fooled, this is a direct, calculated assault on our children’s future and working families,” Joseph added. “This is a part of a larger plan to erase decades of civil rights protections, cut off access to public education for working class families, and strip away the very agency responsible for ensuring equity in our school system.”
Before moving to politics, Joseph worked as a teacher for over two decades.
Taking aim at Trump and more over public school cuts
Joseph then welcomed to the podium Williams, who condemned the “Trump fascist regime” and the accelerating threats to public education, while also taking aim at two mayoral candidates whom he said denied the city’s school system funding through the years.
“We have a president that wants to cut and dismantle any progress that we have,” Williams said. “I have seen this mayor make so many cuts to the Department of Education, and they want us to applaud him for restoring it. I have seen Andrew Cuomo be forced by a lawsuit to try to give this city the billion dollars that it deserves.”
Mayor Adams faced backlash earlier this year for his initial fiscal year budget proposal, which left out funds for early childhood education. Adams restored $167 million in funds, but the restoration fell $30 million short of the funding the City Council had called for in its own proposal.
In 2021, Gov. Kathy Hochul settled a lawsuit that former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who is running for mayor on an independent party line, had fought while in office. The New York Court of Appeals had ruled 15 years earlier that New York State was unequally funding school districts in low-income communities and owed school districts across the state billions of dollars.
“I applaud the attorney general and so many others who, in history, are gonna look as the people who did the best they can to fight against this fascist regime,” Williams said. “And I’ll tell you what, it may take some time, but we’re gonna win. The next generation is gonna be proud of us. They’re gonna be proud of the fight we did to make this America live up to its ideals.”
In a statement to amNewYork, a spokesperson for NYC Public Schools wrote that the department will “always provide every school with the resources they need to give our students a world-class education, and our policies and practices will not change.”
“We are monitoring the situation regarding U.S. Department of Education funding in coordination with the State Education Department as we assess the potential impacts and determine how best to proceed,” the spokesperson wrote.
Cuts attack a city of immigrants, Lander says
Lander, who has frequently been attending immigration hearings as a “Friend of the Court” amid increasingly aggressive Immigration and Customs Enforcement tactics in New York City — and who was arrested by ICE on June 17 while attempting to escort an individual out of his hearing — spoke about protecting immigrant students and their families.
“What they would like to have us think is that they’re just cutting the money for education for immigrants or for asylum seekers,” Lander said. “Let’s talk about what New York City is — 40% of the 8 million New Yorkers are immigrants, 50% of New Yorkers live in mixed-status households with at least one person that was born outside the United States, including one million children.”
Brisport, who is the chair of the council’s Committee on Children and Families and who used to be a teacher, said he remembers “being in a school that was underfunded.”
“My students didn’t have textbooks, my school barely had paper … our school was underfunded, meanwhile I was watching the rich get richer and richer and richer,” Brisport said, noting a campaign he helped lead in 2022 to hike taxes for New York’s richest. “But in this recent Republican budget, we see a reversal. We see tax breaks for the rich and budget cuts for the rest of us.”
Trump’s reconciliation bill cuts funds for education, public healthcare, and food assistance. The Trump administration announced earlier this year that it is working to dismantle the Education Department by cutting staff and outsourcing work to other agencies.
