NEW YORK, NY November 21, 2008 —This afternoon a skeptical city Council Committee is hearing from education officials about how they plan to make hundreds of millions of dollars in cuts to city schools to plug the growing budget gap. WNYC's Bob Hennelly has more.

REPORTER: Deputy Chancellor Kathleen Grimm says the Education Department's spending reductions won't result in teacher layoffs, but almost 500 positions will be eliminated in administrative, maintenance and other support roles. Council members took issue over the decision to force principals to cut more than $100 million in neighborhood school spending. Councilman Lew Fiddler challenged the chancellor on whether her budget cuts would reduce instruction staff. The Brooklyn Councilman said that on a recent tour of a middle school, the principal said she had to weigh letting a teacher go, or suspending funds for school supplies. The Council is holding hearings to review Mayor Bloomberg's plan to cut $1.3 billion in mid-year spending throughout city government to make-up for quickly falling tax revenues. For WNYC I am Bob Hennelly at City Hall.