Integration Coalition Testifies at Preliminary Budget Hearing FY27- Education
- Rochelle Du
- 20 hours ago
- 4 min read
3.24.26 at 2:30 PM- My name is Nyah Berg, and I am the Executive Director of New York Appleseed, a nonprofit that advocates for inclusive and integrated schools and communities. I am submitting testimony on behalf of the Integration Coalition, a coalition of organizations and advocates convened by Appleseed to address school segregation through a Real Integration framework and call for a model of solidarity, not scarcity, across NYC public schools.
I am here today to call attention to a critical gap in the proposed education budget: the lack of dedicated investments to advance school integration and inclusion across NYCPS, despite renewed commitments by both the Chancellor and the Mayor to address segregation in New York City’s school system.
Specifically, we are calling for the following:
Baseline funding of $2 million annually, beginning in Fiscal Year 2027 and continuing for three years, to support implementation of laws passed by the council in 2019, bolstering integration planning and initiatives.
We are also in full support of the Coalition for Equitable Education Funding in calling on the City to extend and baseline funding for essential education programs that are currently funded for this year only and are, therefore, at risk of significant funding cuts in July – Learning to Work ($31M); Sensory Exploration, Education & Discovery (SEED) ($12M); infant/toddler child care seats ($10M); restorative justice ($6M); the Mental Health Continuum ($5M); early childhood education outreach ($5M); immigrant family outreach ($4M); and Student Success Centers ($3.3M), as well as to make additional investments that are needed to support students, especially those who have the greatest needs.
The importance of dedicating funding to tools that support the implementation and evaluation of school integration and inclusion efforts at NYCPS cannot be overstated. There is a track record of success for diversity and integration planning initiatives that have had access to state or city funding to support community engagement, planning, and implementation. Examples such as the successful merger process of Arts and Letters 305 United, District 13’s larger diversity efforts, and the continued measured success of the District 15 Diversity Plan demonstrate what is possible when communities work intentionally toward integration, and even more so, what is possible when they have the funding to do so.
In all of those examples, school districts had either received a city diversity grant awarded in 2019, or a New York State Integration Project (NYSIP) grant – both funding streams have since ended. As the federal government has also halted funding for diversity initiatives, such as its short-lived Fostering Diverse Schools grant, and with magnet school funding already under threat, New York City needs to renew its own funding to support integration initiatives.
The City Council has historically been a crucial partner in advancing integration. In 2015, the Council passed the School Diversity Accountability Act, which created one of the most comprehensive datasets on school demographics to date. Nearly ten years later, we now have a body of data with the potential power to hold the NYCPS accountable for progress toward diversity goals. Further, in 2019, the New York City Council passed two local laws (244 & 225): one establishing a permanent School Diversity Advisory Working Group that would hold annual hearings and report on its recommendations, and the other requiring every community school district to have a diversity working group. These laws showcased the City Council’s sense of urgency and commitment to addressing the longstanding segregation present in NYC public schools. These laws also have one common theme: stagnation. All three laws, in some form, have stagnated in their potential to advance an agenda to address segregation, whether due to a lack of follow-up or follow-through.
With the Mayor and the Chancellor expressing willingness and understanding to support remedies for historic school segregation, the City Council has a continued role in renewing forgotten and unfunded mandates, with the proper funding and urgency to make them happen. A $2 million annual investment is a modest but essential step to operationalize these laws, turning existing mandates and data into real, community-driven integration plans and programming across the system.
In addition to our call for funding to advance integration, we also highlight a longstanding and urgent need to make our schools truly inclusive. That is why we echo the budgetary ask of Advocates for Children of New York to invest an additional $450 million for school accessibility projects in the 2025-2029 Capital Plan, increasing capital funding for the School Construction Authority to increase the number of accessible schools and accelerate the timeline of completion. Too many public schools remain physically inaccessible, effectively segregating students with disabilities. Currently, only about one-third of schools are fully accessible. Even with an additional $450 million investment in school acces
sibility projects in the 2025–2029 Capital Plan, we would still fall well short of full accessibility by 2030.
This $450 million is not a nonessential request; it is a necessity if we are serious about shortening a timeline that continues to limit school options for students with disabilities simply because they cannot physically access them. For this coalition, the connection is clear: our schools cannot be truly integrated if they are not also truly inclusive.
Thank you for your time and for your continued partnership in advancing integrated and inclusive schools across New York City. I am happy to answer any questions and can be reached at nberg@nyappleseed.org.