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PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Joan Kanarkowitz, Adult Education and Admin Coordinator at Make the Road New York
6:23:06
ยท
155 sec
Joan Kanarkowitz from Make the Road New York testified about the importance of adult education programs for immigrant New Yorkers and called for increased funding in the FY26 budget. She highlighted the current funding limitations and the potential impact of federal cuts on these essential services.
- Requested doubling of baseline funding for DYCD adult literacy programs from $12 million to $24 million
- Asked for maintenance of council discretionary funding at $16.5 million for adult literacy initiatives
- Shared a success story of a program participant who improved their English skills
Joan Kanarkowitz
6:23:06
Hi.
6:23:06
Good afternoon.
6:23:07
My name is good afternoon, chair steves.
6:23:09
My name is Joan Kanarkowitz, and I'm an adult education and admin coordinator at Make the Road New York.
6:23:15
Yep.
6:23:16
Thank you.
6:23:18
So on behalf of our 28,000 plus members and staff, I thank the committee for the opportunity to share our concerns with the f y twenty six budget and its impact on adult education programs for immigrant New Yorkers.
6:23:30
Make the Road firmly believes in safeguarding dignity and fairness for all New Yorkers.
6:23:35
Over the years, the council has done so much to ensure that New York continues to be a city that welcomes immigrants.
6:23:41
Part of this is ensuring that ESOL classes are available to the 2,200,000 New York City residents with limited English.
6:23:48
Yet combined city and state funding for adult literacy education is so limited that fewer than 3% of these New Yorkers are able to access adult basic education, GED or ESOL classes in any given year.
6:24:00
In the face of horrifying anti immigrant attacks and potential cuts to adult literacy funding at the federal level, our communities need the city's support for these programs.
6:24:09
Unfortunately, in f y twenty five, the Adams administration inexplicably cut funding for community based adult literacy programs funded through multi year contracts with DYCD from 17,000,000 to 12,000,000.
6:24:21
This reduction in funding has been maintained in the mayor's preliminary budget for FY twenty six.
6:24:26
This combined with likely federal cuts will be devastating.
6:24:29
Make the Road stands with allies in the New York City Coalition for Adult Literacy and calling on the administration to double its baseline funding for adult literacy programs funded through DYCD from 12,000,000 to 24,000,000.
6:24:41
We also ask the council maintain its discretionary funding at its current level of 16,500,000.0 at FY '26 for the adult literacy pilot and adult literacy initiative.
6:24:50
We are extremely grateful to the council as this funding is currently ensuring that many thousands of working class immigrants are getting the adult education services they need in order to help their kids succeed in school, get civilly engaged, and improve their employment outcomes.
6:25:03
Make the Roads New York's adult education program serves over 800 adult literacy students a year.
6:25:09
We are fortunate to have received discretionary funding this year through the council.
6:25:13
And for example, one of our participants who arrived in New York two years ago and did not speak English proudly shared how the program helped her develop English skills.
6:25:21
At a recent medical appointment, she was able to communicate and ask questions without the support of a translator.
Althea V. Stevens
6:25:26
Thirty seconds.
Joan Kanarkowitz
6:25:28
Make the Road respectfully requests the renewal of the 449,000 from the adult literacy pilot as well as 150,000 from the initiative to enable us to sustain our own ESOL classes to some of the most vulnerable New Yorkers.
6:25:40
Thank you.