FACT: Brooklyn Tech is the largest NYC specialized high school, with the most students who: qualify for free/reduced lunch, are first generation, or are underrepresented minorities.

FACT: Brooklyn Tech is funded at the LOWEST percentage of Fair Student Funding of ALL the specialized high schools.

We’re asking the Department of Education’s Chief Financial Officer Raymond Orlando, Chancellor Carmen Farina, and Mayor Bill de Blasio to give Brooklyn Tech students their fair share – and we need your help!

Fair Student Funding (FSF) dollars – approximately $5.5 billion in the 2015-16 school year – are used by schools to cover basic instructional needs and are supposed to be allocated to each school based on the number and need-level of students enrolled at that school.

Brooklyn Technical High School is the largest of New York City’s esteemed specialized high schools, and is one of its original three. With close to 5,500 teenagers commuting from all five boroughs, Brooklyn Tech has:

• Nearly two-thirds (65%) of students eligible for free/reduced lunch – compared to less than half at Stuyvesant and Bronx Science, and just half for the specialized high schools overall
• a student body that is over 50% first generation
• the most underrepresented minorities at any specialized school

The Mayor recently said, “There is a tale of two cities in our schools, and we will not accept it. Each and every child in each and every classroom deserves a future that isn’t limited by the zip code of their birth.” 

We’re asking the Mayor, Chancellor, and CFO Orlando to back up their words with action and allocate a fair share of Fair Student Funding to Brooklyn Tech students. If Brooklyn Tech were funded at the same level as Stuyvesant, it would mean more than $2.5 million dollars that would directly benefit our students. If, over the past four years that Brooklyn Tech has been stuck at 87% of its budget, it had received equal funding to Stuyvesant’s 96%, that would have added up to over $10 million dollars, meaning more AP classes, more academic tutoring and student support, repairs to broken equipment, funding for after school activities, and more! 

We will be delivering this petition in person to the Mayor. Our goal is to get as many signatures as possible so the Mayor, Chancellor Farina, and Mr. Orlando know the Brooklyn Tech community expects its students to be treated equally to those at all the other specialized high schools. Please sign the petition and encourage fellow BTHS parents, students, and alumni to sign as well.