Please answer our new class size survey, the education budget, and more!
July 5, 2021
1. The DOE’s Draft Class Size Reduction Plan, which is required by law to be submitted to the state next month, makes only one cursory commitment for the next school year:
Ensure that schools with classrooms that currently meet the class size mandate have appropriate funding to continue to maintain these class sizes in SY23-24.
Yet the plan provides no information on how the DOE will ensure this, and as far as we know, schools have received no special funding or support to prevent class sizes from increasing again next year. Already, we have heard from schools where class sizes are likely to do so.
So we need your help: Please ask your principal or School Leadership Team whether there were any classes at your school that did make the cap this year but are unlikely to make them next year. The new caps are the following: no more than 20 students per class in K-3; 23 students in 4th-8th, and 25 in high school classes in general education, gifted and ICT classes. And please let us know what you find out by filling out our very brief survey; you can also email me at [email protected] with questions or comments.
2. As you’ve probably heard, the City Council voted to approve the city budget, and though the Mayor’s office insisted that overall, the education funding would remain flat, this is despite the fact that the DOE is due to receive $500 million in additional state funding for our schools – the final phase-in amount of an $1.3 billion increase over the last three years, resulting from the CFE equity lawsuit.
While the Council managed to restore several of the Mayor’s proposed cuts to programs like community schools, childcare for immigrant parents, and student mental health supports, and expanded the funding for extended day 3K, one-third of schools will still see Fair Student Funding cuts, which is very concerning because this is the primary funding used to pay teachers and keep them on staff. Moreover, the Mayor has refused to promise not to make additional midyear cuts to schools with lower than projected enrollment.
Here’s our updated analysis of Galaxy and FSF cuts. It is important to note that when we excluded D75 schools, whose budgets we do not understand, and excluded cuts to summer school, we found far fewer non-D75 schools with total Galaxy cuts: only 149 out of more than 1500.
However, the planned Fair Student Funding cuts are still concerning for the reasons stated above, and as, according to our analysis, these cuts seem to have hit the neediest schools hardest – those with higher percentages of students who are Black, Hispanic, have special needs or are in poverty, contrary to the ostensible goals of the recent FSF redesign.
Sadly, the Council also voted to approve the school capital plan, which will eliminate 22,000 new school seats, just when they will be needed to provide additional space in overcrowded communities to lower class size.
It was gratifying to see that 12 progressive Council Members out of 51 voted no to the budget and the capital plan which is twice as many as voted against last year’s budget. This is an indication of some real progress though not fast enough.
As Chalkbeat pointed out, in the future education cuts may be even more extreme as several major programs are currently being funded with federal Covid funds that are due to run out soon. The reporter wrote: “perhaps the most contentious decision will be whether to slash school budgets on campuses that have seen enrollment plunge but have been kept steady by temporary relief money. “
Yet as we know, most schools already experienced sharp budget cuts last year, and will see further reductions next year, though not as drastically as a strict adherence to the flawed FSF formula would require.
That’s why NYC schools have lost about 4,000 K12 teaching positions over the last five years, and why class sizes significantly increased this year in most schools and may increase next year once again.
3. We had a great Skinny award dinner on June 28, honoring former Bronx principal and current member of Congress Rep. Jamaal Bowman. We posted photos on Instagram and Facebook; check them out! For those who couldn’t attend, we rely on your support going forward. If you appreciate our work, please consider making a contribution to Class Size Matters today.
thanks, Leonie
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