By Jacob Kornbluh

November 25, 2015

NEW YORK – The de Blasio administration is expected to provide $19 million in funds for private security officers who’ll be placed outside non-public schools, including Yeshivas and Jewish day schools, across the City of New York upon request, the office of the Mayor and Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito announced on Wednesday.

The agreement between Mayor Bill de Blasio and the Council came after a yearlong battle over Introduction 65-A, sponsored by Council Member David Greenfield.

The initial draft of the piece of legislation would assign uniformed NYPD School Safety Agents to all non-public schools, just as every public school in the City of New York receives. The funding proposed for this bill was estimated at the maximum of $50 million. But Mayor Bill de Blasio refused to include any funding for the proposal in his Executive Budget for Fiscal Year 2016, arguing that the NYPD is doing a pretty good job in protecting all communities. The mayor argued that security is already being provided to all neighborhoods, regardless of the location of the officers. “It’s about the choices we have to make with the resources we have… We believe that with the resources we have now we can provide protection to communities,” he explained. “We understand there are some very challenging times we’re in, but we also know the NYPD is, in particular, tremendously able to addressing the challenges we face, even when they are internationally derived. We feel good about our ability to protect people.”

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