MBP Stringer on class size

Excerpt from Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer’s State of the Borough Speech, February 11, 2008

For years, attempts to reduce class size have been at the heart of efforts to improve the public schools. And the job of school planning is only getting more difficult. With more and more families choosing to raise their children in New York City, and the City’s population on the rise, class size has become a moving target.

So, along with Leonie Haimson of Class Size Matters, and Patrick Sullivan, my appointment to the Panel on Education Policy, I recently convened a group of elected officials, parents, and community board members.

Their mission is to:

_ draw a sharper picture of the school needs we have today;

_ become smarter about the demands we’ll face tomorrow; and

_ get a handle on where school construction will do the most good.

Let’s put education experts and urban planners together in a room with one shared goal: to plan school construction before – not after – our children find themselves in overcrowded classrooms.

I’d add another point – we hope to devise policy and legislative solutions that will help to solve the crisis of school overcrowding citywide. Kudos to the Borough President for daring to help us tackle this problem.

The full speech will be broadcast on Time Warner Channel 34 and RCN Channel 82 on Sunday, February 18 at 8:00PM.