Yonkers Officials Say They Face Devastating Cuts
The City of Yonkers is railing against the proposed state budget, saying it will mean extensive cuts to Yonkers' school district.
Yonkers officials are saying the state budget deal reached in Albany is going to spell big trouble for education in the Westchester city.
According to Mayor Phil Amicone, everything that makes for a quality education would be taken away if the budget is passed as is. He said the city’s preparing to eliminate pre-kindergarten all extracurricular activities, all sports, and all bus transportation.
Amicone said “we’ve been trying to get New York State to recognize that the formula they use for funding education in the state is flawed.” He said it has underfunded the board of education in the city of Yonkers for years. “The ten billion dollar deficit clearly had to be fixed, but you don’t do it by taking the monkey off your back and transferring it to the next group” said Amicone.
The Superintendent of Schools, Bernard Pierorazio, said if the state budget is adopted as is, Yonkers will have to lay off nearly four hundred teachers and over three hundred civil service employees.
