TESTIMONY
Ira Yankwitt, Executive Director, Literacy Assistance Center on the Impact of Adult Literacy Funding Practices
4:02:40
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176 sec
Ira Yankwitt outlines the adverse effects of the current Request for Proposals (RFP) structure on adult literacy programs in New York City.
- Critiques the RFP by the Department of Youth and Community Development (DYCD) for potentially making 70% of current providers noncompetitive.
- Highlights a shortfall in funding within the RFP compared to the needs and the preliminary budget for the next fiscal year.
- Appreciates council members' support for urging a review and extension of the RFP deadline.
- Suggests increasing per student funding rate, expanding the number of designated funding areas, and creating broader competition categories to improve the RFP's impact.
- Emphasizes urgency with the impending proposal submission deadline and the significant need for increased funding.
Ira Yankwitt
4:02:40
Good afternoon, Chair, Albulez.
4:02:42
My name is Ira Yankeewit, and I'm the executive director of the Literacy Assistant Center.
4:02:46
I'm also a proud member of the New York City Coalition for Adult Literacy.
4:02:50
As you know, CYCD currently has an open RFP that fund community based organizations to lead adult basic education, high school equivalency, and English for speakers of other language programs for the next 3 to 6 years.
4:03:03
D y c d has structured this RFP to prioritize residents of the highest pro poverty, lowest educational attainment, most limited English proficient neighborhoods in the city.
4:03:12
We unequivocally support this goal.
4:03:14
Unfortunately, the way aycd has structured the RFP through a 2 tier funding competition could effectively render up to 70% of the current community based adult literacy providers noncompetitive, forcing them to close their assets and displace thousands of the very students that aycd is aiming to serve.
4:03:31
We are grateful to council member of the list as well as to council members Juan and Stevens every single member of this committee, and the 32 additional council members who signed on to your letter urging aycd to revise this counterproductive competition model and to extend the proposal deadline.
4:03:48
The irony is that while TYCD wants to address neighborhoods with the highest needs, the $11,850,000 in funding in this RFP is $5,000,000 less than the $16,830,000 in administration side funding for GYCD Adult literacy contracts in FY 24.
4:04:07
This means that this RFP will serve just over 91100 students annually, a significant decrease from the 16,000 plus that NYCD reported serving in FY 23 and less than 1 half of 1% of the 2,200,000 adult New Yorkers in need.
4:04:24
At the same time, the mayor's preliminary budget for FY20 5 includes $21,700,000 for DYCDO Literacy, nearly $10,000,000 or 85 percent more than what is currently included in the RFP.
4:04:37
If this additional funding could get baselined and included in the RFP, DYCD could do some combination of the following 3 things.
4:04:44
First, it could increase the per student funding rate, which would make it more realistic for smaller organizations those that don't have additional sources of revenue to supplement the DYCD funding to apply under this RFP and to be able to provide more comprehensive services.
4:04:59
2nd, it could increase the number of neighborhood tabulation areas or NTAs designated for funding and increase the number of students served through the RFP.
4:05:08
3rd, it could create a second non NTA based competition for providers who wish to run Burrow Wide and or city wide programs and increase the number of students served through this RFP.
4:05:19
With the March 20th deadline for organizations to submit proposals fast approaching, we urge this committee to get clarity on the funding and push for a base lining of the full $21,700,000 as well as to continue to push to fix the competition model and extend the deadline further.
4:05:34
Thank you for your attention.