By the end of this year, CUNY expects to shrink its deficit to $128 million, down from a high of $234 million in fiscal year 2022, the chancellor told state lawmakers at a hearing on the state higher education budget.

“While we have made great strides, there’s still more work to be done,” said Matos Rodríguez.

But the faculty union Thursday continued to blast the most recent cuts ordered by the central CUNY administration.

The Professional Staff Congress slammed what they called “austerity measures,” including larger class sizes and reduced student services from library hours to cafeteria access. At one campus, Queens College in Flushing, more than two dozen full-time substitute lecturers lost their teaching gigs within weeks of the spring semester.

“There are resources in the state economy to resist these cuts,” PSC President James Davis said, “and add hundreds of millions more to the CUNY budget.”

Matos Rodriguez attributed the gaping budget shortfalls at CUNY to factors from enrollment declines that accelerated with the pandemic to increased costs. While the school system recently logged a 2% overall enrollment increase, it’s still down about 40,000 students since the fall of 2019.

CUNY’s strategy to address its deficit has included two rounds of across-the-board savings targets and most recently a targeted approach for nine campuses that have “shown signs of more fiscal distress,” he said. On top of the hiring freeze, the university system also created a vacancy review board used when backfilling jobs left empty by attrition.

Matos Rodríguez also credited federal pandemic aid and investments by Gov. Hochul and state lawmakers as helping to close the budgetary gap.

Hochul’s proposal for next school year includes a $36 million increase in operating funds for CUNY’s four-year colleges and a community college funding floor so that no school receives less state aid than it did last year if enrollment drops. The plan also earmarks $441 million to invest in new facilities and repair crumbling campuses.

Just 8% of the university’s 300 buildings are considered to be “in good repair,” according to its strategic plan announced ahead of this school year.

In an effort to boost enrollment and tuition revenue, Hochul last month announced plans for both CUNY and the State University of New York to automatically admit students in the top 10% of their high school classes to their most selective campuses.

The university has also grown its rosters through a city program called CUNY Reconnect, where seven in 10 participants who dropped out but reenrolled are sticking with another chance at finishing their degrees.

Merkos L’Inyonei Chinuch, the educational branch of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement, runs one of eight accreditors selected by the Education Department to authorize private and religious schools in New York.

Schools that receive the green light from an accrediting agency don’t have to submit to local reviews or otherwise prove they’re teaching subjects like reading or math.

But a yeshiva reform advocacy group says it’s skeptical that “an agent of the Chabad Hasidic sect which operates yeshivas that proudly refuse to offer secular education” will crack down on academics. Their concerns come amid statewide efforts to bolster oversight of religious schools that advocates worry could be undone by what they see as a loophole.

“Are we putting a new system in place that’s going to look the same,” said Beatrice Weber, executive director of Young Advocates for Fair Education, “where again we have another layer of bureaucracy, but still the lack of transparency and another way for the schools to get away with not actually teaching their students?

“That’s our biggest fear and our biggest concern,” Weber said.

The national accreditation board of Merkos L’Inyonei Chinuch was founded in 2000 to promote an accreditation process unique to yeshivas and Jewish day schools.

Schools are asked to conduct a “self-study” based on standards set by the board, submit to a peer review that includes a school visit, and develop a strategic plan. The criteria include students are learning English language arts and math concepts such as algebra and geometry.

Merkos L’Inyonei Chinuch has not formally accredited any schools in New York yet. It would not comment on the criticism and instead referred the Daily News to its procedures as published.

“General Studies requirements vary from state to state,” Merkos L’Inyonei Chinuch wrote in its handbook, “and it is expected that a school entering into an accreditation protocol meets all civic and regulatory mandates.”

Weber suggested that the group’s connection to Chabad, which is affiliated with a Brooklyn yeshiva already found noncompliant with education law, Oholei Torah, “does not seem to bode well” for the organization’s ability to evaluate schools.

With nearly 2,000 students, Oholei Torah is known as the flagship school of the Chabad movement and graduates the “vast majority” of its leaders, according to the school’s website.

The connection to Chabad has raised questions among critics.

Yeshivas

“The whole idea of accreditation is not to provide a loophole but rather to provide an extra layer of accountability,” said Weber. “But when you have an organization that’s been affiliated for decades — like for as long as they’ve existed, they’ve been affiliated with these schools — knowing that these schools were not teaching English,” Weber continued, “it’s a joke.”

At a hearing this week on the state education budget, a lawmaker from the city questioned the state’s decision.

“It also runs yeshivas that have failed the City of New York’s evaluation. So if they fail in their own schools, why should they be accrediting anybody’s schools?” said State Sen. Liz Krueger (D-Manhattan).

“If you’re flunking yourself, I don’t think you should be evaluating others in our system.”

Education officials declined to comment on how Merkos L’Inyonei Chinuch was selected, but said they worked with national accrediting organizations and their criteria.

To become an accreditor, the state Education Department asks applicants whether they’ve been approved by the National Council for Private School Accreditation or another accrediting agency, according to a blank application reviewed by The News.

Organizations are asked to provide documentation, and specify how long their accreditation is good for and when was the last review. There’s also a section to list potential conflicts of interest between applicants and religious or private schools in New York.

Merkos L’Inyonei Chinuch is a member of the National Council for Private School Accreditation, according to the latter’s website, though ties between the organizations appear to run deeper. Rabbi Nochem Kaplan, the longtime director of Chabad’s central education office, served as president of the group from 2009 to 2011, when he pushed back against legislation in private education.

“Accreditation challenges schools to improve education effectively from within,” Kaplan said during an interview at that time. “This process of accreditation is the best way to improve education, because the school itself sets its goals and establishes a strategic plan. We then evaluate to see if they’ve honored their own stated objectives successfully. That’s much more effective than legislating from outside.”

Merkos L’Inyonei Chinuch was not the only religious accreditor approved by the state, which also included organizations with ties to Seventh-day Adventists and Lutherans. The list also includes the New York State Association of Independent Schools that for decades has accredited local schools that churn out some of the highest-achieving graduates in the state.

“NYSED reviews all applications for accreditors with the same rigorous standards, regardless of religious affiliation, as required by law,” said JP O’Hare, a spokesman for the Education Department.

The adjunct professor, Tomasz Skiba, posted a clip of himself on Instagram saying most of Hamas’ Israeli hostages being held in Gaza “were okay” and that “some of them actually liked their time.”

The other, Amin Husain, was filmed denying verified reports that Hamas sexually assaulted women on Oct. 7. He quipped that being called antisemitic is an honor to be “won.”

“All members of our community must adhere to the University’s discrimination and anti-harassment policies,” university spokesman John Beckman said in a statement on both men’s suspensions Friday. “NYU investigates all complaints it receives and takes appropriate action, which may include taking measures such as suspension.”

Beckman announced Husain’s suspension on Jan. 25. Skiba said he was told Monday that his suspension related to an investigation into his social media posts.

Skiba, an adjunct professor of applied psychology, has set his social media account to private. But his video was shared online by StopAntisemitism, a viral account on X, formerly known as Twitter.

“From what I have seen from the hostages that were released by Hamas, most of them were okay,” Skiba said in the clip. “Some of them actually liked their time. One girl was able to keep her dog while she was staying there. So who knows? Maybe I would also enjoy it, and actually have good food and meet some people.”

The Israeli teen who kept her dog in captivity and her family have told several news outlets that the Shih Tzu was kept in a birdcage and fed the hostages’ leftovers.

Skiba prefaced his comments by saying he is “against any kind of killing of human beings and injustice.”

He’s been at NYU for more than three years and on Friday told the Daily News the video was “taken out of context.”

Skiba, who is originally from Poland, said he was compelled to speak out because of the country’s history of being taken over by other countries, such as Russia and Germany. He clarified that he is against taking hostages, and his own grandfather was held captive in Siberia.

“It’s very important to me that all people — Israeli, Palestinian, Polish — have the right to be free and have a peaceful life,” said Skiba, who added that a family member three generations ago was “100%” Ashkenazi Jewish.

He was supposed to teach two courses this semester on sexual identities and counseling, which he said were put on ice the Friday before classes were scheduled to begin that Monday. He’s also been receiving death threats and vulgar personal comments.

Skiba felt that it was important for him to weigh in on the conflict because of his training in trauma.

“I learned a lot about men that came from countries exposed to war,” he said. “Men have a hard time expressing their emotions” and opening up about what happened to them in childhood.

Husain’s remarks were made to a student group at a nearby campus, The New School, at the end of last semester. His talk went viral after conservative media outlet The Free Press shared the recording.

“‘Oh my God, you support rapists and people that behead babies,'” Hussain said of pro-Israel advocates’ allegations in the video. “Both of which, whatever, we know it’s not true.”

Husain also referenced a petition for his dismissal related to his pro-Palestinian activism, started by a NYU alumna in mid-October that has since garnered more than 6,600 signatories.

“I have a petition going around, right, because I’m ‘antisemitic,'” he said to the group of students. “I won the honors of antisemitic multiple times, by the way.”

A representative for Husain, the First Amendment defense organization Parachute Project, did not immediately return a request for comment.

Universities across New York have been grappling with how to respond to campus tensions after Hamas terrorists stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking hundreds of others hostage. More than 100 were released during a prisoner swap last year.

Israel’s brutal counteroffensive has killed more than 27,000 people in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

With News Wire Services 

The proposal would scrap a provision that guarantees school districts at least the same aid as last year and calculate inflation differently, changes that the governor’s budget director defended as “common sense.”

But both state education Commissioner Betty Rosa and local schools Chancellor David Banks, joining several lawmakers and advocates who have railed for weeks against the plan, went on the record at a legislative budget hearing Thursday opposing it.

“We do not support this,” said Rosa, who testified she was not consulted on dropping the so-called “hold harmless” provision ensuring districts with declining enrollment do not lose aid.

“It’s been so abrupt, and the conversations have not taken place.”

The state’s school funding formula provides money to districts based on several factors, including enrollment, student need and district wealth, with the ultimate goal of sending resources to cities and towns that need them the most.

The 337 school districts at risk of budget cuts without the measure are mostly concentrated in rural areas of the state.

If Hochul’s plan is approved without changes, the state would use a 10-year average inflation rate, rather than that of the prior year, in the formula. Banks said he opposed the new calculation.

The city’s public schools expected an additional $130 million from the state next year if not for the change, officials said. The system is also facing a $1 billion fiscal cliff with the expiration of federal pandemic aid.

“Any loss of funds severely affects us,” said Banks. “And particularly when you couple that with the fact that as stimulus funds are running out, and the city is facing tremendous fiscal challenges, it’s all of these things happening at the same time. And so it does require us to make very difficult choices.

Chancellor David Banks

“You’re talking about really tough choices around programs that people love, and that make a real difference in the lives of kids.”

While potentially not the full amount anticipated, city schools will receive at least an additional $342 million, or a nearly 3% increase, next year, according to budget documents.

Despite the strong pushback, many education officials and advocates are actually in favor of changing the formula in different ways.

The state Education Department again this session is asking for funding to study how it allocates school aid, a process that currently uses census poverty data from the turn of the century. Rosa asked for three to five years to develop a new formula before cutting the budgets of hundreds of districts.

“A lot of districts were caught off guard,” the commissioner said. “This has really created the kinds of distress for districts that now they have to rethink [various] issues.”

“You’re going to look at staffing. You’re going to look at services, particularly for special needs and English language learners. You’re going to look at those mental health services that you’ve put in place. You’re going to look at those [learning loss] resources that you’ve been using to … continue to bring the kids up.”

The governor’s Division of Budget Director Blake Washington in an op-ed Thursday defended Hochul’s track record, during which education funding has reached record highs and outpaced the country.

Hochul’s proposed $35 billion for public schools includes a new $825 million investment. And “exponential increases” over the last few years have grown school district reserves, Washington said, reaching $1 billion in surplus reserves that exceed statutory limits.

“As more districts are ‘held harmless’ by this provision — thereby disregarding the Foundation Aid formula — fewer state resources are ultimately available to students in high-need school districts, or for districts that are growing in size … At a time when hard decisions are required to close a significant budget gap, these factors must be part of the equation.”

“Instead of asking the question, ‘how much more money are our schools getting?’; it should be ‘why do we have a formula that forces us to pay for students that don’t exist?'”

The proposal has been blasted by Democrats and the GOP alike, who have seized on the issue to rally against what state Senate Republicans have called the New York’s “deep-rooted fiscal irresponsibility.”

“I just want to put on the record,” said Sen. James Tedisco (R-Saratoga and Schenectady), “that I and my conference are not going to go quietly into the night if this or any other budget tries to balance itself on the backs of our kids, their education, their future or the taxpayers of New York state who are going to have to make up the difference.”

A final state budget is due by April 1.

Thomas Bernagozzi, 76, was arrested in December on charges of molesting children in his care during his tenure at two elementary schools in Bay Shore between 1970 and 2000. Two former male students reported him under a state law that lifted the statute of limitations for abuse of a minor.

In December, prosecutors requested Bernagozzi be held on $1 million cash bail, but he was released with a monitoring device. On Wednesday, he was arraigned on a new indictment and ordered held on $600,000 bail, which his attorney vowed would be posted.

Also on Wednesday, prosecutors alleged that the Bay Shore Union Free School District knew about Bernagozzi’s conduct and looked the other way.

To date, 45 civil lawsuits have been filed against Bernagozzi and the district under the New York State Child Victims Act, and 11 more victims have come forward since his arrest, bringing the total number of known victims to 56, News12 Long Island reported.

Bernagozzi was a widely beloved teacher “revered” by teachers and parents, prosecutors said. Outside the classroom, he ran many extracurricular activities, including school plays and after-school sports. He also took kids on field trips to beaches, pools, Broadway shows and sports events.

Victims ranged in age from 4 to 8 years old. One of them was Ron Hubbard, Bernagozzi’s student in 1976 and one of those who filed suit. He told ABC News that the teacher would fondle him in the classroom and at baseball games.

According to prosecutors, Bernagozzi took students to a private gym and the beach and said a search of his home had unearthed photos of hundreds of students.

Superintendent of Schools Steven Maloney on Tuesday distanced the district from Bernagozzi’s alleged conduct.

“This former employee has not been affiliated with the District since 2000,” he said in a statement. “Due to pending and ongoing litigation, the Bay Shore School District is unable to comment regarding this matter. The District remains committed to ensuring the safety, health, and wellbeing of all students.”

With News Wire Services

A 17-year-old student was stabbed in the shoulder while the other, also 17, was wounded in the abdomen inside Martin Van Buren High School on Hillside Ave. near 230th St. in Queens Village about 1:20 p.m., cops said.

“I was trying to walk my girlfriend to her class and as we got to the staircase we saw them get in an altercation,” a 14-year-old student told the Daily News. “These two boys had an altercation. One of them way losing bad and he pulled out a knife and stabbed [the other one].”

A gun, possibly fake or a pellet gun, was recovered that belonged to one of the victims, school safety sources said.

One victim was initially listed in critical condition, but both boys are now considered stable, cops said.

A 17-year-old boy was arrested and charged with criminal possession of a weapon, police said. It wasn’t immediately clear if the teen was the victim and his name was not released due to his age.

Two other people were taken into custody and charges against them were pending Thursday night, according to cops.

“NYPD immediately responded to an incident at the school and are currently investigating,” said Jenna Lyle, a spokeswoman for the public schools.

Students were put into a soft lockdown that had been lifted by 3 p.m., according to education officials.

A “soft” lockdown means there’s no imminent danger, per Education Department policy. Students are trained to move out of sight and keep silent and teachers check the hallway for students, lock classroom doors and turn off the lights.

The school is a non-scanning school with cameras in the building, school safety sources said.

A parent of a student at the school told The News she was not notified of the incident until after students were dismissed for the day.

“That’s too late, that’s too late for the parents,” said Anne O’Reilly, who has a 10th-grade daughter. “They should let parents know as it’s happening.”

O’Reilly described security at the school as “very bad.”

“They need metal detectors,” the shaken mother said. “There should be metal detectors.”

So far this school year, authorities say they have recovered fewer weapons.

They’ve taken 3,172 weapons, a decrease of 9.8% compared to the same time frame last year, according to cops.

Schools saw a slight increase in felonies during the first four months of the academic year — 112, compared to 95 the same time frame the previous year — according to the Mayor’s Management Report. Most of that increase was driven by stealing school property, like computers and calculators, or people’s personal belongings, and still remains around pre-pandemic levels.

By next school year, all autistic children starting kindergarten in three local school districts, including areas of Brooklyn, Manhattan and the Bronx, will be guaranteed a spot in specialized public programs in their neighborhoods.

“There are lots of high-quality programs,” said Schools Chancellor David Banks at Public School 958 in Sunset Park. “But for far too many of our kids, we got to send them way out of the neighborhood, at great expense to the system and at a great inconvenience to the families and to the kids themselves.”

City spending on special education due process claims — which can include tuition, transportation and legal services and services the school system fails to provide — surged by 500% over a decade to nearly $1 billion, according to a city comptroller report over the summer.

The expansion will include a couple dozen new autism programs in School Districts 5, 12, and 14 that have already shown results elsewhere in the city. Education officials said they expect to serve 160 additional students at the upcoming sites.

“The promise here is that, historically, we have not been able to offer every student who’s wanted a Nest, Horizon or AIMS program a seat,” said Christina Foti, chief of special education. “And so our commitment here is in those three districts, every student whose family is requesting that seat and meets the criteria  — which generally most students on the spectrum will certainly meet the criteria for one of those programs — will be guaranteed a seat.”

The newly announced programs, however, will only reach a sliver of children who need additional services and support. More than 12,200 students may be better served in a specialized autism program, according to an estimate by the Special Education Advisory Council, a 52-member panel appointed by the chancellor whose recommendations prompted Wednesday’s announcement.

“Such a big word”

Lucy Antoine, one of the members of that panel, still remembers when her son Dylan was diagnosed. After saying a few words as a toddler, he stopped speaking before he was 18 months old, and struggled to make eye contact or show emotions.

“‘He has autism, mom,'” Antoine said she was told. “And I said, ‘How could you say something like that to me? Such a big word.'”

She went on to try a smorgasbord of public services and programs to get Dylan the help he needed with little success. When she found the Nest program, where students with disabilities learn alongside their classmates in general education with extra teachers and services, Dylan, now 15 and a student at Brooklyn Tech, was able to get back on track.

“This boy used to cry every last day of school because he didn’t want the school year to end,” Antoine said.

Almost all public school children in the Nest program, 95%, graduate from high school, according to city data.

In addition to the autism program expansion, Banks announced new and more frequent trainings for teachers and ways for parents to get more involved in developing their child’s individualized education plan. Two public school alumni with disabilities were enlisted to create a glossary of special education jargon and preferred terminology.

“A long road ahead”

There is still more work to be done to properly serve students with disabilities in local public schools.

“While there remains a long road ahead of us, we are very excited to expand specialized programs for autistic students into neighborhood schools,” said Banks.

Mayor Adams promised last school year that any preschool student in need of a special education class would have access. But by the end of the spring term, more than 1,100 children were waiting for a spot in a program, whose expansion was funded by expiring federal pandemic aid.

Education officials said they were able to provide the hundreds of seats that were deemed necessary at the time, but have since seen an influx of students who need those services.

The school system is also struggling to keep pace with special education reforms ordered in federal court.

The city has made an additional $25 million available to make some of the more difficult changes required by a court-appointed special master, such as hiring staff and updating technology systems.

But the administration failed to adopt seven out of 16 of those changes with fall deadlines, as first reported by Chalkbeat. At the end of last year, special master David Irwin predicted that at least half of reforms with January deadlines would not be fulfilled on time because the school system was “hamstrung” by the city’s spending and hiring freeze.

Education officials were noncommittal about whether the investment will be sufficient to keep pace with the timeline outlined by the special master but defended service provision as the “highest it’s ever been.”

“We’re going to do what we can within the budgetary restrictions that we have,” said Deputy Chancellor Carolyne Quintana, whose portfolio includes special education, “to keep trying to meet those demands.”

The bonuses were designed by the Oklahoma Department of Education to recruit teachers for hard-to-fill positions, such as early elementary and special education. Teachers, at least one of them urged by a supervisor, applied and received funds via the Teaching Signing Bonus program instituted by State Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters last year.

The bonuses were paid in November, giving teachers just enough time to spend the money before the state’s sudden demand that they pay it back by the end of February, including taxes, or it would be sent to collections, Oklahoma Watch reported.

Oklahoma’s state education department has said it awarded $185,000 to teachers who were not qualified for the program and paid $105,000 to teachers who were qualified but received too much money. At least nine teachers are affected. Lawmakers from both parties, as well as the affected teachers, are crying foul, according to The Oklahoman.

Special education teacher Kristina Stadelmen was awarded $50,000, netting $29,000 after taxes.

“I obviously don’t have the money to pay it back by the end of February,” said Stadelman, who used the mini windfall for home improvements and to fund her maternity leave. “I came home the day I found out and just cried for two days straight.”

Those eligible for the bonus program must be certified teachers who commit to five years serving in pre-kindergarten through third grade classrooms, as well as pre-K through 12th grade special education classes in Oklahoma public-school districts, Oklahoma Watch reported.

Another stated stipulation is that the teacher cannot have been employed in an Oklahoma public school district during the 2022-2023 academic year. However, not everyone understood that requirement. The state says it gave out the bonuses before realizing the teachers in question were not eligible, reported KTUL-TV.

Kay Bojorquez applied after a supervisor suggested it, not realizing that working at Epic Charter Schools last year meant she should have been turned down. She didn’t know anything was wrong until the Jan. 13 letter arrived telling her that the $50,000 she’d been awarded, which she used to pay down debt and send her son to college, was not hers to keep.

“When I read the letter, I threw up,” she told Oklahoma Watch last week. “I’ve had two panic attacks in the last two days.”

She and others said being forced to pay it back will cause financial ruin. Borjorquez has filed a lawsuit against Walters and the state education department.

Close to 8 in 10 families cannot afford to pay for child care or after-school [programs], according to the Citizens’ Committee for Children of New York, part of the so-called “Campaign for Children.” Advocates say further reductions will only make a bad situation dire.

The warning comes amid growing concern over the affordability of the city for middle- and lower-income families.

“There is no doubt that reductions of this magnitude will harm children and youth and the workforce in these crucial programs,” read the memo signed by the campaign’s eight-member steering committee, “driving greater numbers of families out of New York City.”

The cautionary letter follows reporting by The News in November that local families were wondering if they can afford to stay in the city after Adams shaved $120 million off the early childhood education budget. Another $50 million cut added insult to injury a couple of weeks ago just as preschool application season began.

Close to $20 million is being cut from a popular summer program for middle school students, and $7 million from city-funded “COMPASS” after-school programs that will deprive more than 3,500 young people of services, according to the coalition. The Adams administration earlier this month secured long-term funding for a smaller-scale version of the summer program that ends earlier and does not include Fridays.

Fears over the cost of living in the city, including child care and other factors such as record-high rents, have been growing as a clearer picture emerges of who left during the public health crisis.

While the city’s population of wealthier households returned to prepandemic levels by 2022 after many fled during its peak, those with lower incomes have not rebounded in the same way. A recent state comptroller report found people that moved out of the city that year had a median wage of $49,000, or 18% lower than the year before.

“We are really fearful, given what we already know about who’s leaving,” said Jennifer March, executive director of the Citizens’ Committee for Children of New York. “We’re worried that the elimination of hundreds of millions of dollars for services in after-school, summer and early education will just make life much more difficult for that income cohort and encourage greater flight from the City of New York.”

Adams has defended the cuts to preschool programs as necessary with the loss of federal pandemic aid.

“We don’t want you to leave the city,” Mayor Adams said Monday to a concerned caller, a Brooklyn mom of an almost 3- year-old, on WNYC. “A family like yours is who we want here in our city.”

“First of all, 3-K, Pre‑K was on temporary dollars. It was dollars, stimulus dollars that the previous administration put in place. Those dollars are sunsetting. We have to find the right funding.”

Adams also said the demand for 3-K in some neighborhoods does not match up with available seats in that area. While some neighborhoods have empty slots in local programs, others have programs with lengthy waitlists and no nearby availability.

“We were not paying for bodies in seats,” said Adams. “We were just paying for seats, the misalignment of the number of seats that were needed in a particular community left open … We are properly aligning these seats, and our goal is to make sure every child that wants a seat will get a seat, and we have lived up to that.”

The local Department of Education warns on its own website that “due to limited seats, not all children will receive a 3-K offer” in half of the city’s 32 geographic school districts, mostly in Brooklyn and Queens.

Rather than cut the vacant slots in 3-K classrooms, advocates are pushing for changes that they say will make the process of applying for care less difficult and time-consuming — and ultimately fill those seats like they did in universal pre-kindergarten programs.

“What’s clear to me is when there was the public will and interest to fill seats [during the pre-K rollout], they were filled,” said March.

Adams last year directed all city agencies to find savings in response to the ballooning costs of caring for migrants.

But some advocates say that funding early childhood and youth programs in time will pay for themselves, helping migrants integrate into the fabric of the city and longtime New Yorkers avoid more costly services down the road.

“These are the prevention investments,” said Phoebe Boyer, president and CEO of Children’s Aid.

The alternative, Boyer said, is: “We end up with families leaving the city entirely, and this becomes a city just for those who can afford it. No one wants that. It’s not what brings vitality to a city.”

Adams on public radio Monday also underscored that his administration has cut subsidized child care costs from $55 a week down to less than $5 a week.

“So we are very much in line with making sure that we can make child care affordable,” said Adams. “We know how important it is.”

Mayoral spokeswoman Amaris Cockfield defended the cuts.

“Facing a significant budget gap, we had to make difficult decisions to balance the budget as required by law — and we did so without tax hikes, massive service reductions, or layoffs,” she said in a statement. “Thanks to measured, responsible fiscal management and better-than-expected tax revenue, we balanced the budget in January and made critical investments in schools and summer programming for our young people.”

The coalition, Columbia University Apartheid Divest, also called on the university to pay for sickened protesters’ medical bills, for their mental health services and for their damaged property following Friday’s protest.

The demands came as students walked out of class Wednesday afternoon, and 10 have gone to the hospital since the reported attack, according to a tally by a group called Students for Justice in Palestine.

“Minouche Shafik, you must pay! Medical bills are on the way!” students chanted in videos posted to social media. Shafik is Columbia’s president.

Students revived Columbia University Apartheid Divest following years of inaction after university officials in the fall suspended campus chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace in a decision widely reviled by free speech advocates.

Apartheid Divest has grown from several dozen student groups in November to more than 100 organizations, according to its own tally.

Columbia University Apartheid Divest also demands that Columbia overhaul its Public Safety Department and its relationship with the NYPD.

“We have been unable to report our very serious experiences of violence to the university because these reports automatically trigger NYPD involvement, which poses a serious risk to many of our members,” the group said.

The student groups on social media said they were taking safety into their own hands by recording Wednesday’s demonstration and designating a “safety team” with orange fabric on its members’ heads and arms.

More than 100 students walked out of their classes in the cold rain, according to a student newspaper, the Columbia Spectator.

Ahead of the walkout, Columbia barricaded Low Library, the site of the Friday protest, and shuttered its gates. The university’s Public Safety Department asked students and faculty to scan their ID cards to access campus, citing safety concerns.

“This cautionary step acknowledges the reality that our campus is in the City of New York,” read a memo, “and community members outside of Columbia may come to our campus without necessarily sharing our values to maintain safety, free expression, and a sense of community.”

Police announced Tuesday they are no longer investigating the alleged attack as a hate crime, but that the substance involved is being tested.

Students have reported symptoms that ranged from headaches and nausea to lightheadedness and chest-tightness since attending Friday’s protest.