Chair Dinowitz on DOE accountability and budget gaps

And I will pass it to Chair Dinnowitz for his opening.

Thank you, Speaker.

Thank you, Chair Lee.

Good afternoon and welcome to the Fiscal 2027 Executive Budget Hearing for the Committee on Education, joint with the Committee on Finance.

My name is Eric Dinnowitz.

I'm the Chair of the Committee on Education.

I'm honored to be here as a proud DOE public school alum and a forever educator.

Today we'll be discussing the Department of Education's $37.92 billion fiscal 2027 budget as presented in the Executive Financial Plan.

Thank you to Chancellor Samuels and your team for joining us today.

The DOE has the largest budget among all city agencies.

one-third of the city's overall fiscal 2027 budget.

It also has the largest headcount among city agencies with 141,414 budgeted positions, 46% of the entire city's budgeted headcount.

As chair of this committee, I will continue to push for accountability and efficiency and transparency.

The budget for the largest school system in the country should reflect the needs and interests of its students, its educators, its faculty, and its families.

The executive plan includes major investments in programming for students with disabilities and District 79 students, as well as the expansion of New York City Reads and Solves, which provides standardized curriculum.

I'm particularly happy to see the inclusion of Learning to Work and Early Childhood Education Outreach funding, both of which were called for in the Council's fiscal 2027 preliminary budget response.

However, there are multiple Council priorities that were not funded in the Executive Plan.