NYC parents give failing grade to public school class size law that could see 12K new teachers
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A newly formed parents group blasted union-backed law that will limit public school classroom sizes – and could force the Big Apple to hire as many as 12,000 new teachers.
The Coalition for Class Size Equity is on the attack against Gov. Kathy Hochul and state lawmakers, saying they’re out to oppose the “negative consequences” of the earth-shattering law that was imposed on city schools after a major lobbying push by the teachers’ union.
“One-size-fits-all never works, one-size-fits-all doesn’t make sense anywhere,” said Deborah Alexander, executive director of the group. “Common sense is missing.”
The Queens resident, who has a child attending the Bronx High School of Science and another enrolling there in September, said many parents are not yet aware of “painful tradeoffs” to comply with the law.
“You cannot create space where there is none,” Alexander told The Post. “You’re going to cause more harm than good.”
Hochul and the state lawmakers — under intense lobbying from the United Federation of Teachers — approved a law in 2022 requiring schools in New York City to slash class room sizes across the board by 2027-28.
Under the law, K-3 class sizes max out at 20 students, grades 4-8 are limited to 23 students and grade 9-12 must be 25 students or fewer by the deadline.
Forty percent of the schools must be in compliance in the 20224-2025 school year beginning in September.
But the parents’ group flunked Albany for drafting a universal law that hamstrings the nation’s largest public school system.
Alexander agued the reductions in class size should have been limited to needy students or lower grades instead of across-the-board.
“The reality of this mandate is that funding will be redistributed from the poorest school districts to districts that are comparatively more affluent and already have stronger academic outcomes,” she said.
The group claims the law could:
Reduce teaching quality in schools in low income neighborhoods by requiring smaller classes and more instructors
Redirect funds from lower-income to higher-income neighborhoods with higher enrollment and larger class sizes
Limit seats in popular zoned schools, creating a space crunch and forcing the busing of students to to schools further away
Curb access to gifted and talented programs, and potentially eliminate seats in selective high schools such as Stuyvesant and Bronx Science.
Both Mayor Eric Adams and Schools Chancellor David Banks have slammed the law, painting it as a costly unfunded mandate imposed on the city — even as state lawmakers insist there’s adequate funding to comply.
“We’ve got to hire another 10,000 to 12,000 teachers in order for us to be in compliance and we are estimating that and [the Indepdendent Budget Office] is estimating that it’ll cost close to $1 to 1.5 billion dollars in order for us to do that,” Banks said during budget testimony before state lawmakers in February.
A UFT spokesperson defended the law Tuesday saying, “Smaller classes are a critical priority for tens of thousands of public school parents across the city.”
One of the lawmakers involved in crafting the law acknowledged Tuesday the parents group raised legitimate issues.
“They do have valid concerns,” said Assembly Education Committee Chairman Michael Benedetto (D-Bronx), a retired teacher who met with the parents via Zoom on Monday.
“We will consider remedies after speaking to other people involved — the teachers union, the Department of Education. We will take corrective measures — if needed,” he said.
But state Sen. John Liu (D-Queens), who chairs that chamber’s panel overseeing the city’s schools, defended the class size reduction law, and suggested that educators in the Adams administration were fear-mongering.
“Reducing overcrowded classrooms has long been mandated by the state Constitution as interpreted by the highest court, and because the city failed to make efforts to uphold that responsibility, I spearheaded legislation in 2022 to impose a six-year timeframe for the city to come into compliance,” Liu said Tuesday.
“Regrettably, instead of accepting that responsibility, funded by vast increases in state school aid, the Department of Education has fomented parent anxiety by threatening false choices. These parents are right to be outraged, but their outrage would be better directed at the DOE for not executing a workable and amenable plan.”
