Former Mayor Michael Bloomberg joined New York City Mayor Eric Adams Monday to announce a $50 million investment in summer school programming in the wake of COVID-19.
Summer Boost NYC is a $50 million investment from Bloomberg Philanthropies and other investors to help create and expand summer school programs at charter schools. The initiative is promising to help kids catch up on what they've missed the last couple years because of COVID.
Adams called the amount of instruction missed by New York city kids "the educational equivalent of long COVID." He claims some students are falling as far as a year behind in their learning. Former Mayor Bloomberg says the program will focus mainly on math and English. The money will fund an average of five weeks of coverage during the summer and reach 25,000 students between kindergarten and eighth grade, according to Mayor Adams.
While Bloomberg says that any charter school with kids K-12 can apply, the funds will be targeted specifically at the kids who they say need the most help.
"It's going to make our schools work for everyone. I'm not going be caught up in the conversation of separating children based on the names of the schools they are in. They are all our children, and today we are investing in all of them," says Adams.
The investment is just for charter school students, but the mayor previously announced an expansion of the Summer Rising Program, which is open to kids from both public and charter schools.