Latest news on class size, school overcrowding, wasteful DOE contracts and more!

Nov. 29, 2022

Dear all —

I know you must be bombarded with emails today about Giving Tuesday, but Class Size Matters would truly appreciate your support, so we can continue our work for smaller classes and a more accountable Dept of Education in 2023. Please donate today. Here is just some of what we’ve accomplished in 2022, and a taste of our plans for the future:

1. We helped persuade the Legislature to pass an amazing class size bill last spring, that will require all NYC schools to cap class size at far smaller levels over the next five years. The Governor signed the bill into law on the first day of school this September.

An update: NYC released new class size data on Nov. 15, by school, district, borough and citywide. Here is our summary. It shows that as Oct. 31, average class sizes had sharply increased at all grade levels compared to last year except for high schools, and the number of students in classes of 30 or more at all grade levels had also increased – to more than 232,000. The percentage of classes that achieve the the caps in the new law decreased from 41% to 38%; and in many districts the number was even lower. More on this in our press release here, which also includes quotes from many parents, teachers and elected leaders. We know that without significant changes to DOE budgeting, enrollment policies and the school capital plan, many schools will not be able to make the class size benchmarks in the law.

2. As to budgeting, we were one of the few groups to speak out against the devastating cuts to schools planned for this fall beforehand, long before they were actually imposed. We advocated against these cuts several times during testimony before the City Council and in presentations to CECs and community groups. We also helped organize protests and a lawsuit to block these cuts after they were approved.

An update: On Tuesday, Nov. 22, the Appellate Court ruled against the four parents and teachers who had sued in July to restore the cuts. Though they agreed with Judge Lyle Frank that the City had broken the law by letting the Council vote on the budget before the PEP, they disagreed with his order to reverse these cuts, and said this making the city restore school budgets at this point would cause too much “disruption,” without acknowledging the far worse disruption caused by the cuts themselves.  Instead they merely ruled that the City should follow the legally required process in the future. The attorney and plaintiffs are now considering whether to appeal this decision, but in any case, the lawsuit did bring even more attention to these unforgivable cuts and will hopefully make the city think twice against doing this again. Here is our press release and some media clips about the court’s decision.

3. We know that to achieve the smaller class size caps in the law, changes will likely have to be made to enrollment and the school capital plan so that all schools have the space to reduce class size, especially in the most overcrowded communities..

An update: the latest proposed capital plan was released last week, and cuts new capacity by another $330 million compared to adopted plan, which itself cut $1.5 billion in new capacity compared to year before. The plan never even mentions the new class size law or the need to provide sufficient classroom space to meet its goals. And yet according to our analysis, about 347,000 (38%) of students were in overcrowded schools last year. This is why we a Task Force to analyze what changes should be made to DOE policies and spending, so that all students are provided with the smaller classes they need to succeed .

4. We also have continued our advocacy around DOE wasteful contracts, and on Sunday night, noticed a contract to be voted upon during tomorrow night’s PEP meeting that would allocate $31 million to McGraw Hill for a non-competitive contract, in which every textbook purchased by schools would cost its full list price, plus 7% shipping.

I tweeted in protest against this ridiculous bid. The issue was then discussed during yesterday’s PEP contract meeting, with the head of procurement at DOE admitting that a contract to buy these books without any discount “doesn’t make sense.” The Daily News ran a story about it today. If DOE had negotiated the same bulk discount for McGraw Hill textbooks offered online at this website, offering a 40% discount and free shipping, they could have saved our schools $14.9 million. You can view the Contract proposal here.

Update: The DOE has signaled that they plan to go ahead anyway with this contract vote tomorrow; if you’d like to provide comments, the meeting begins at 6:00 p.m. via zoom. You can log-on and sign up to speak from 5:30 PM to 6:15 PM at: https://www.learndoe.org/pep/nov30/.

All this is to say that if you support this sort of work going forward, please consider giving a tax-deductible contribution to Class Size Matters today, so we can continue to advocate for an effective, and equitable plan to achieve the smaller classes that our kids need and deserve, and a DOE budget that makes sense.

Sincerely yours, Leonie