FIGHTING FOR THE KIDS: #Yonkers Teachers Join Other NYS Teachers And Sue Over $5.2 Billion Budget Cut

Several New York teachers unions sued the state in the Albany County Supreme Court on Tuesday after New York withheld $5.2 billion budgeted to help elementary and secondary schools operate.

Six hundred thousand members of the New York State United Teachers joined several other unions in calling the move “unconstitutional, illegal, and a violation of the separation and distribution of powers under the New York State Constitution.”
As a result of the budget cuts, Yonkers City Schools cut its universal pre-K program and laid off 36 teachers.

“In the midst of this pandemic and unprecedented upheaval in New York’s public schools districts regarding their operations, their delivery of services, and their financial burdens, as well as those of their teachers and support staff, the state has withheld and announced it will continue to withhold essential state funding to public schools,” the 23-page lawsuit states.

The teachers’ unions ask the court to declare the withholding of the budgeted $5.2 billion unconstitutional and order the director of budget to release the funds.

The teachers’ unions are represented by attorney Robert Reilly.