Class size bill signed! and other news

Sept. 9, 2022

1. Tremendous news yesterday as Gov. Hochul announced that she was signing the class size bill. The only change from the original bill is that this year will be a planning year, and the gradual phase-in of smaller classes will begin the fall of 2023, to achieve caps over five years of no more than 20 students in grades K-3, 23 students in grades 4-8, and 25 students in high school academic classes.

This is a huge victory for NYC children, and for all of you who have helped us advocate for class size reduction over many years. In our press release, along with AQE, CPAC and the Ed Law Center, we thanked the Governor for listening to the research and to the pleas of parents and teachers that it’s time to provide true equity to our students, who have long suffered from the largest class sizes in the state.

Our work is far from done, of course. We will be advocating for parents and community members to have significant input into the planning process, and to ensure that that the resulting plan is effective, fair and correctly implemented. We will continue to need all your help to make sure this happens. Stay tuned for more.

2. We will also continue our battle against the devastating cuts to school budgets this year, which will move our schools in the exact wrong direction. At this point, it doesn’t look like the Council will manage to negotiate a deal with the mayor to restore the cuts, so the only hope we have to block them is if we win the lawsuit against them at the Appellate Court level, where oral arguments aren’t scheduled until Sept. 29. We’ve heard from many parents and teachers about awfully large classes on the first day of school. Next week, after things settle down a bit, we’ll be surveying all of you to find out just how large they have grown. Please ask your children or their teachers what size their classes are, so you can let us know.

3. I’ll be interviewing Michael Mulgrew on my WBAI radio show, Talk out of School, about all these issues. The show will be aired tomorrow, Saturday Sept. 10 at 1 PM EST, at 99.5 FM or wbai.org, and I’ll ask him about the new class size bill, the impact of the budget cuts to schools, what parents can do if their child’s class is too large, and more.   Please listen in if you can, or check out the podcast afterwards.

Thanks again — the class size bill would never have happened without your support!   Leonie