How is New York’s class size law faring?
Since New York State passed its smaller class sizes law in 2022, education advocates have repeatedly called out city officials for not fully keeping up with newly enacted budget mandates that require the city to prioritize classroom headcounts in its spending.
The class size law (S9460), sponsored by Senator John Liu, required the city to reduce class sizes over a five-year period in public schools. All classes were to be capped at 20 students in kindergarten through 3rd grade, 23 students in 4th through 8th grade, and 25 students in high school. The five-year phase-in required at least 20% of city schools classes to comply by the 2023-2024 school year.
“Since the class size law was passed, City Hall and the DOE [Department of Education] have maintained that it can’t be done, usually claiming a lack of space. Our analysis of the DOE’s own documents prove that in fact these schools have the room,” United Federation of Teachers (UFT) President Michael Mulgrew said in a statement. “We don’t need any more excuses. With a $38 billion DOE budget and $10.7 billion in NYC surplus for FY24 and FY25, the funding is available to bring our class sizes into line with schools in the rest of the state.”
Pushing for smaller class sizes in New York City has long been seen as a racial justice and equity issue stemming from a history of rampant segregation in our public schools.
Drs. Kenneth and Mamie Phipps Clark, who founded the Northside Center for Child Development in Harlem and whose psychological studies of Black children were instrumental in the Brown v. Board of Ed case that desegregated schools, were staunch education advocates since the 1940s. Dr. Kenneth Clark was the first Black person elected to the New York State Board of Regents where he passionately led efforts to racially integrate schools, upgrade facilities in the poorest neighborhoods, and reduce class sizes.
“Children can achieve if they have the proper tools,” said Renee Freeman, an educator and paraprofessional that’s worked in schools in Queens. “When we’re asking for smaller class sizes, we’re asking people to look at the bigger picture. With our high schools, they promised us smaller class sizes when they broke up [co-located] the schools. But those schools are overcrowded.”
In her experience in Far Rockaway and Jamaica school districts, she said that she’s seen as many as 32 students in a class in the past. She said that hinders a teacher’s ability to give them the academic and social-emotional help they need. “We need equity,” said Freeman. “The racism in this country continues and it’s impacting our children.”
The city has released its Class Size Reduction Plan for 2025, the second annual plan, in compliance with the state law earlier this month. As of 2023, about 40% of all classes—with the exception of performing groups and physical education classes—meet the class size requirements, with schools serving populations of students with higher poverty levels prioritized, reported the city.
The plan doesn’t propose significant enrollment caps but it does mention the possibility of reducing enrollment at “high-demand schools” in future years if necessary. It states that the city has identified “roughly 540 schools” that need additional physical space in order to comply with the class size law. Based on a UFT survey, Mulgrew said there are 856 Title 1 or low-income schools across the boroughs with enough space to reduce class sizes by the start of the school year this September.
“New York City Public Schools is actively working to implement this law across the city. We are in full compliance this year and will be in full compliance next year with the steps we are proposing,” the city’s Department of Education (DOE) said in a statement.
“As shared in our recent class size plan, we are proposing investing an additional $180 million in school budgets for Contracts for Excellence and class size reduction in particular—enough to support over 1k teachers—and asking superintendents and principals to find ways to make progress towards specific numerical goals across the city. But, to be clear, multiple independent analyses of the law indicated that it would prioritize funding and staffing away from our higher need communities and towards our better off communities.”
Besides the need to address physical space in city schools, most advocates the Amsterdam News reached out to said that hiring more teachers was critical. The city currently employs about 76,000 teachers.
The UFT is a huge proponent for hiring more teachers and rebalancing classes as a method of reduction, estimating that the education department will need to hire at least 3,000 teachers to lower class sizes in the coming school year. In the long-term, the reduction plan notes that the city may need to hire between 10,000 to 12,000 teachers, especially in shortage areas like special education, English as a Second Language courses, Career Technical Education (CTE) and Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM).
Still, the city’s reduction plan has not pleased everyone.
“Any plan worth its salt must provide information on what actual, effective steps will be taken next year and over the following three years to meet the mandates in the law,” said Leonie Haimson, executive director of Class Size Matters.
She also slammed the DOE. “Any plan worth the paper it is printed on must project how many classes will be reduced each year, using which levers, and with what results. This document fails on every account.”
Haimson said that the plan would cut funding for new school construction by over $2 billion compared to the existing five year plan and the $137 million allocated for staffing will not be sufficient. She also pointed out the city’s financial plan and the Mayor’s executive budget call for a counterproductive hiring freeze on teachers.
She suggested that the DOE adhere to the recommendations of the Class Size Working Group, which includes adjusting enrollment between nearby schools, or moving some 3K and PreK programs to neighborhood community-based organizations.
Ariama C. Long is a Report for America corps member and writes about politics for the Amsterdam News. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep her writing stories like this one; please consider making a tax-deductible gift of any amount today by visiting https://bit.ly/amnews1.
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