The just-released Mayor's Management Report has some questionable claims and troubling data regarding class size and school overcrowding, especially given the need for the administration to be implementing an actual plan to lower class size in accordance with the class size law, passed in June 2022. (See our updated FAQ on this issue.)
The MMR asserts that "Overall, average class sizes remained constant from Fiscal 2023 to Fiscal 2024 in grades 6 through 12 and increased slightly in grades kindergarten through 5." Yet according to the DOE's own June 2024 class size report, average class sizes increased significantly last year in all grades but high school:
In the MMR, officials also state that they have no target figure for average class sizes, either for this year or next- which they should if they had a plan to comply with the class size law, as it requires a four-year phase-in of smaller classes in all grades.
Regarding the need to create more school seats -- critical to be able to reduce overcrowding and lower class size -- the MMR says DOE "target" is to have 10,222 more school seats in FY 25.
Yet the data in the capital plan reveals that the number of new seats to open next year will likely be far less – only about 6,000 - with continuing declines thereafter. Instead of ramping up construction of new schools after the class size plan was passed, Adams cut the budget for new capacity in the capital plan by over $2 billion. [The SCA recently added another $2 billion to new capacity in the new five-year plan, in accordance with a state budget mandate, but haven't revealed where those schools will be sited and seem in no hurry to build them.]
It is also strange that according to the MMR, they have no "desired direction" in creating new school seats, either upwards or down. This is especially bizarre, as there was no progress in relieving school overcrowding last year according to the report - with the percentage of overcrowded elementary, middle and high schools remaining the same, respectively at 34%, 17%, and 29%. The percentage of elementary and middle school students enrolled in overcrowded schools actually increased to 35%.
The DOE has estimated that they will need to hire 10,000 to 12,000 more K12 teachers to comply with the law within four years. And yet the data in the MMR shows there has been a decline in the total number of teachers since FY 20 of more than 3,000. What the decline would be if the concurrent increase in the number of 3K and PreK teachers over that period would be is unclear, but our analysis of headcount data posted on the City Council website shows a sharp reduction in the teaching force of over over 4,000 full-time K12 teachers between FY 2019 and FY 2023. Again, in the MMR, there is no "Desired Direction" up or down in the future for the total number of teachers on staff.
All this goes to further reaffirm our conviction that even now, more than two years after the class size law was passed, the DOE has no real class size plan - as we pointed out in a letter to the State Education Department in June 2024, urging them to require DOE to create such a plan and take affirmative, accelerated action to comply.
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