The Legal Aid Society has joined more than 90 social justice, police reform and education advocacy groups in a letter to Mayor Bill de Blasio and Police Commissioner Dermot Shea urging the City to shelve plans to hire 475 school safety agents, arguing the money is better spent on students’ education and mental health, as reported by POLITICO.

The letter comes in the wake of last year’s budget negotiations, where Mayor Bill de Blasio and Speaker Corey Johnson said they would cut $1 billion from the Police Department’s budget partly by shifting school safety agents out of the NYPD.

The groups signed onto the letter include The Legal Aid Society, the New York Civil Liberties Union, Make the Road New York, Girls for Gender Equity, New York Immigration Coalition and Immigrant Defense Project. They also called for ending the school-to-prison pipeline and the criminalization of Black and brown youth in schools.

“Many NYC schools don’t have nurses or restorative justice programs — and it’s widely recognized that system-wide there is an inadequate number of counselors, social workers and educational staff,” the groups wrote. “Hiring officers instead of addressing needs that educate and nurture students is the wrong move — and we are calling on you to cancel these planned hires.”