The New York City Council’s FY26 budget includes several restorations and investments inspired by CUF’s research, testimonies and recommendations, including the implementation of the NYC Minority Business Accelerator and key CUNY programs.
 

NYC Minority Business Accelerator

The City Council allocated $1 million starting in FY2026 to launch the Minority Business Accelerator which will help existing minority and women-owned businesses grow into larger, job- generating entities. This initiative is directly inspired by CUF’s 2022 report titled Scaling Minority Businesses: Adapting Cincinnati’s Accelerator for NYC and was featured in our report “15 Policy Ideas for NYC to Start 2025.”

During her State of the City speech in April, City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, announced that “the Council will help establish a Minority-Owned Business Accelerator, modeled after a similar effort in Cincinnati.” The New York Times noted that the Center for an Urban Future had proposed the idea.

Expansion and Restoration of Key CUNY Programs

CUNY Reconnect
The adopted FY26 budget includes an expansion of funding for CUNY Reconnect, growing the program from $5.8 million to $7.8 million. CUNY Reconnect is a program designed to assist adult learners with some college credits but no degree return to CUNY and complete their credentials. CUF’s 2022 report directly inspired the creation of CUNY Reconnect.

As of 2025, CUNY Reconnect has supported over 47,000 New Yorkers in their efforts to return to college. This investment will enable thousands more to get on the path to better jobs and a more financially secure life.

This builds on CUF’s numerous reports and testimonies highlighting the program’s groundbreaking results and need for its expansion, such as our March 2024 budget testimony and our November 2023 testimony before the Council’s higher education committee.
CUNY ACE

The adopted budget restores the $10.1 million budget for the highly successful CUNY Accelerate, Complete and Engage (ACE) program, which helps students at senior colleges complete their bachelor’s degrees on time. CUF has published several reports spotlighting the program’s impact, including our March 2023 report Playing New York City’s ACE Card, which found that the program significantly increased graduation rates at CUNY’s four-year colleges, despite reaching only a small share of eligible students. The program’s impact was also highlighted in our January 2025 report and our November 2024 report.

Computer Science for All
The City Council provided $4 million to the DOE to continue the city’s Computer Science for All (CS4All) initiative, which works to ensure computer science exposure in K-12 schools for all students. CUF has shined a light on the vital role of achieving computational fluency across the K-12 system and made the case across numerous publications to boost crucial programs like CS4All. This includes CUF’s 2023 report Expanding on CS4All: Training NYC’s Future Teachers to Integrate Computing Education, testifying before the City Council Committees on Technology and Education, and our op-ed co-authored with Council Member Rita Joseph.