Manhattan Judge Lyle Frank followed through Friday morning on his pledge to declare the Education Department’s fiscal year 2023 budget unlawful and order school spending back to last year’s levels until the City Council and Mayor Adams decide whether to hold an unprecedented revote on the budget.
The likely order from Judge Lyle Frank marks a major victory for the campaign to invalidate the budget cuts and opens up thorny new legal and logistical questions for city officials and school administrators scrambling to make spending decisions with the new school year looming.
Judge Lyle Frank will consider whether to extend the restraining order or even take the extraordinary step of ordering the City Council to recast its vote on the budget.