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The budget deal reached last week averted pain for lots of people and social programs, but thousands of immigrants and local residents who can't read and write are learning that they can't turn to the city for help anymore.

“I look, everybody talking other language that I don't speak,” said Sandra Mar, an adult literacy student from Mexico.

For two years, Mar has studied English at the Union Settlement Association in Harlem. Taxpayers have paid the bill.

“That's wonderful because we don’t have enough money,” said Mar.

“It's amazing,” said Stephanie Arguello, a graduate of the program. “Free classes — you're not going to find free classes in any country, just here.”

Arguello knew just the basics when she came to the United States a couple of years ago for a better life. The adult literacy classes helped her get her GED.

“It gave me the opportunity that I was looking for,” said Arguello. “It helped me to get a job.”

All 700 current students are worried about their opportunity to get a seat in the classroom next year because they just found out the city will only give Union Settlement half as much money as last year.

“The demand is always tremendous,” said Anthony Ng of United Neighborhood Houses. “The problem is, these programs have never been funded enough, and now we're seeing additional cuts.”

Ng, who advocated for the program for his non-profit, points out it's a 62 percent cut over two years.

In the 2010 budget, community-based adult literacy programs across the city received $10 million. In 2011, they received $8.3 Million.

In 2012, funding from the city is down to $3.8 million.

“Folks are going to want to go somewhere,” said Ng.

He's worried about 8,000 would-be students citywide with no place to learn next year and hundreds of other families who learn the language together.

“Sad, very sad,” said Mar, who is now worried about how she’ll get her GED.

Stephanie is concerned about her family. They also struggle to fit in.

“They will be like as they are right now, like lost,” said Arguello.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg's office had no comment.

Speaker Christine Quinn said “when faced with a total of $7 million in cut to these types of programs, we restored nearly half of that funding… We simply didn’t have the resources to fund them all.”