DOE public-affairs spending soars under de Blasio
Mayor de Blasio has quadrupled spending on the Department of Education’s increasingly costly public-affairs division since entering office, a report says.
Families for Excellent Schools, a charter-sector advocate, concludes that de Blasio dedicated $5,973,361 to the budget category this year — up from $1,386,190 in Mayor Mike Bloomberg’s last year in 2013.
De Blasio’s public-affairs spending — which includes press communications — was $3,291,587 in 2014, $2,558,702 in 2015 and $3,170,239 in 2016 before this year’s jump, the group’s report claims.
“Once again, the Department of Education is trying to paper over the real problems at city schools by wasting dollars that should be spent on students,” said Families for Excellent Schools CEO Jeremiah Kittredge. “No amount of money spent on p.r. and spin is going to make parents forget that the city has failed their children.”
The DOE disputed the report, with a spokesman saying the group’s budget data for the current year were out of date and included a $1.8 million allocation for translation services from last year that had yet to be paid out.
“What a world of wrong. This office budget will be $4.1 million, and Families for Excellent Schools has no idea what the budget funds,” said the spokesman, Will Mantell. “It supports translations and direct communications to families about opportunities like adult education, unlike Families for Excellent Schools, which spends millions on lobbying, rallies and ad campaigns falsely attacking public schools.”
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The DOE said a $1 million hike in marketing costs from last year went to restore campaigns that vanished under Bloomberg.
These included ads in “ethnic and community media” and in subways pushing for participation in local education councils.
In addition to overall spending, the Families for Excellent Schools report says, expenditures on full-time public-affairs staff have risen 53 percent since de Blasio took office, rising from $1,221,763 in 2013 and $1,867,150 this year.
Overall DOE central administration costs have risen sharply under de Blasio, with the number of top education officials going from 39 in 2013 to 76 this year.
The preliminary budget for 2017-2018 allocates $11,386,000 in salary for these central-office “pedagogical” staffers — a big hike from $4,055,000 in the 2013-2014 fiscal year, budget reports show.
Overall DOE bureaucracy costs have also risen under de Blasio.
The preliminary budget is slated to pay 1,918 central-administration workers $210,227,000 in compensation. That’s up from $163,947,000 in 2015 for a total of 1,922 staffers.
The DOE has argued that costs and personnel have necessarily increased in keeping with major school initiatives introduced under de Blasio, including his signature universal pre-K program.