These small business owners – and dozens of others like them – have built relationships over decades with teachers, principals and other educational leaders. As minority entrepreneurs, they typify the kind of success that Mayor Bloomberg celebrates as the lifeblood of the city. Yet they say their businesses soon will be forced to close due to new procurement regulations enacted by the Department of Education in order to save money. Like all city agencies, DOE is under the gun to cut spending in the wake of the state budget crisis.
“Once this is implemented, I’ll be out of business,” said Bastos. “All my efforts have been spent serving school districts in New York City. Now, schools are no longer my customer; the customer is New York City. They change the rules, and now, you can no longer play the game. There’s no way I can survive.”
Polyglot and penny-pinching
Two in five New York City public school students speak a language other than English with their families. One in nine are formally classified as English language learners (ELLs); at least as many have attained basic proficiency but still require academic support. Dr. Pedro Ruiz, coordinator of the New York State Department of Education’s Office of Bilingual Education and Foreign Language Studies, sums up the size of the challenge by simply calling New York "a bilingual state." The city’s limited-English proficient (LEP) students, who according to Ruiz speak over 170 different languages, account for three-quarters of that population statewide; in other words, this particular textbook market is centered in NYC far more than in Rochester or Troy.
Until now, schools have relied on local vendors – practically all of whom happen to be minorities – for guidance in finding the best books for students learning English. The vendors in turn researched, developed and honed lists of books from publishers worldwide, bringing titles to the New York market that overseas publishers lack the resources to promote.
Under new Department of Education bidding guidelines, most of these established vendors are no longer eligible to compete for DOE contracts, because they don’t meet new minimum thresholds of $5 million per year in sales. The new rules also require deep purchasing discounts and sophisticated technological capacities – impossible targets for people like her, says Attanasio, who heads an Ad Hoc Committee of Minority Business Owners formed in response to the new DOE regulations.
“We don’t operate for the benefit of our suppliers. We operate for the benefit of the public schools," said David Ross, the DOE’s Chief of Procurements. Ross says the first part of the department's new contract, which was awarded in October, already has reduced the DOE's $57 million total annual book tab by $6.8 million. (The balance of the contract will be awarded later this month.) “Big and middle-size players were able to compete; the smallest players weren’t able to compete for the award.”
