Send the DOE and the Mayor a message today -- so that class sizes don't grow even larger next year

On Saturday, the NY Post reported on the rapid expansion of class sizes in the NYC public schools.  Not only have class size averages increased to their highest level in 15 in grades K-3, and the highest levels in grades 4-8 since 2002, but last year more than 330,000 students were sitting in classes of 30 or larger – substantially more than the year before.  

Sadly, there is nothing in your child’s school budget or nearly any NYC school budget that will likely reverse this trend.  Except for major increases in spending for preK, afterschool, and charter schools, school budgets are flat at best, and given increased teacher salaries and student enrollment, class sizes will likely rise to even greater levels next year.  

This is unless the mayor and the Chancellor make special efforts to reverse course – and revise their deeply flawed Contracts for Excellence plan which includes more than $500 million in spending, but includes no targeted or district-wide allocations for smaller classes, nor any realistic plan to reduce class size, though this is required by the C4E law, passed by the State Legislature in 2007:

In a city school district in a city having a population of one million or more inhabitants such contract shall also include a plan to reduce average class sizes, as defined by the commissioner, within five years for the following grade ranges: (A) pre-kindergarten-third grade; (B) fourth-eighth grade; and (C) high school.

Please email the DOE at ContractsForExcellence@schools.nyc.gov and let them know if you think they should be reducing class size – the deadline for public comments is July 19 -- and copy the mayor at bdeblasio@cityhall.nyc.gov.   Please also copy us at info@classsizematters.org

Urge them to live up to their promises to NYC children and create a real class size reduction plan instead of the fundamentally defective proposal they have put forward.  If you like, you can copy us at info@classsizematters.org   A sample message is below. 

When running for mayor, Bill de Blasio made repeated promises to reduce class size if elected, including that he would abide by the plan submitted by the city in 2007 that called for class sizes on average of no larger than 20 in grades K-3, 23 in 4^th-8^th grades and 25 in HS – and if necessary, to raise revenue to do so.   (See for example, p. 4 of this NYC KidsPAC candidate survey, and p.2  of this document de Blasio personally filled out and signed at a mayoral forum on June 14, 2013.)

Yet the C4E proposal the DOE has posted for next year would allot no specific dollars to reduce class size, and would instead allow schools to use these funds six different ways, including minimizing class size INCREASES, which no rational person can interpret as a commitment to lower class size.  

Their proposed plan is a continuation of the dismal Bloomberg era, in which the DOE has used these dollars for the last seven years as a slush fund to finance its own priorities – and then gave whatever was left over for schools to fill in whatever budget gaps they had.  We have seen the deplorable consequences: class sizes growing out of control. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. 

To make things worse, the DOE ended the early grade class size funding program in 2010 which they had promised to keep, and stopped capping class sizes at 28 in the early grades in 2011.  None of these policy choices have been reversed by the new administration. 

The city’s posted plan appears to subvert the law in at least two ways:  A) It provides no evidence that it will lead to smaller classes.  2) It admits that the funds are being used to supplant (or substitute) for its own budget cuts to schools. 

Please submit your comments to today – the deadline is July 19 – by emailing them at ContractsForExcellence@schools.nyc.gov and copy the Mayor at bdeblasio@cityhall.nyc.gov

A sample message is below – but if you can, please personalize this message by including details of your child’s situation and explain why this issue is important to you.

To: ContractsForExcellence@schools.nyc.gov  and bdeblasio@cityhall.nyc.gov

 

Class sizes are now larger than any time in 15 years in the early grades, and this year, more than 330,000 children were squeezed into classes of 30 or more.  If enacted, your Contracts for Excellence proposal would allow this unacceptable situation to worsen.  It contains no specific funding to reduce class size, even though a plan to lower class size is a required part of the law, and instead allows schools to use these funds to increase class size.

If this proposal is not substantially revised, under your watch, class sizes will be even larger next year.  I urge you to revise this proposal by taking the following steps, at minimum: 

1- Invest a substantial share of the C4E funds as part of a targeted initiative towards lowering class size and make sure that these dollars are spent accordingly; 2- Restore the early grade class size reduction program that the DOE eliminated in 2010; and 3- Return to capping class sizes in grades 1-3 at 28.    

NYC children deserve a quality education and this cannot happen without providing them with smaller classes.

Yours,  name and address.

Send in your comments on the DOE's Contracts for Excellence plan by Friday 5 PM!

The deadline for comments on the NYC’s Contracts for Excellence plan (or non-plan) is this Friday, October 18 at 5:00 PM.   We have a sample letter you can use with plenty of bullet points about all the violations of law in the public process and deplorable results in terms of class size below; but the reality is that since the court made its decision in the CFE case that NYC children were deprived of their constitutional right to an adequate education in large part because of excessive class sizes, class sizes have instead INCREASED each year in every grade in the city’s schools.

In grades K-3, class sizes are now the largest in 14 years, and the C4E plan that the city has submitted will do nothing to address this critical problem, which is the top priority of NYC parents according to the DOE's own surveys.  Please be sure to send in your comments before the deadline at 5 PM Friday to contractsforexcellence@schools.nyc.gov  and jking@mail.nysed.gov   
And feel free to adapt or change  in any way you'd like!
___________________________________

Sample letter to send on DOE’s proposed 2013-2014 C4E plan

Please send by 5 PM, Friday Oct. 18, 2013!

To: contractsforexcellence@schools.nyc.gov 

cc: jking@mail.nysed.gov

I am a parent of a x grader at x school.  My child’s class size is x this year.  This is unacceptable to me, and it should be unacceptable to the NYC Department of Education and the NY State Education Department. 

In the CFE decision, the state’s highest court said that NYC children were unfairly denied their constitutional right to an adequate education, in large part because of excessive class sizes.  And yet since that decision, class sizes have increased each year.  This is contrary to the intent of the Contract for Excellence law passed in 2007 that mandated that NYC measurably reduce class size each year to attain specific annual targets and five-year goals.    To this day, DOE officials have refused to allocate a single penny of the more than $500 million they are awarded each year in state C4E funds towards reducing class size, in their targeted allocations to schools or district wide initiatives.

The DOE has refused to  hold borough hearings since 2008, as the law requires, and the state has set a timetable for public comment months after the C4E funds have already been allocated to schools and mostly spent, making a mockery of the public input and accountability procedures set out in the law.  The DOE also eliminated its early grade class size funding program, even though they promised to retain it as part of their original C4E plan.

This year’s “pre-approved” class size reduction plan requires only that in 75 schools out of more than 1500, class size should not increase more than half of the amount class sizes increase citywide. By no definition and by no reasonable standard does this constitute a class size reduction plan, and by no means will it lead to “measurable progress” in lowering class size.  Moreover, even in these 75 schools, DOE has given them no support or extra resources to lower class size; many of them are already being phased out, and others have other schools co-located in their buildings, which will deprive them of the space needed to reduce class size.

Class size reduction one of only four reforms cited by the Institute of Education Sciences, the research arm of the US Department of Education, as proven to work through rigorous evidence.  The benefits are especially large for disadvantaged & minority students. Eighty six percent of NYC principals say cannot provide a quality education because of excessive class sizes, and smaller classes have been the top priority of parents on DOE’s learning environment surveys every year.

I urge you to listen to parents, school administrators, and research,  and also heed the law, by amending the city’s plan so that it includes “measurable progress” in class size reduction citywide, so that someday soon, NYC students may receive  their right to an adequate education.

Yours, 

Name, school, district

 

CFE may sue for money owed & lessons learned re accountability and oversight

Exciting news! The Campaign for Fiscal Equity (CFE) announced in a letter today that it was considering re-opening the lawsuit against New York State, on the basis that the funding promised NYC and other high-needs school districts has never been fulfilled.

The current plan puts off full funding "until at least 16 years from now, in 2028. Thus, two more generations of New York children will pass through our schools before the State even begins to approach meeting its constitutional obligation to adequately fund its public schools through implementation of the CFE remedy."

See the letter below, from David Sciarra of the Education Law Center, which has taken over the case, to the Governor and the leaders of the NY Legislature.

Coincidentally,  I  gave a class on CFE  Monday night at Princeton, for  a course on urban education policy.  See my powerpoint  below the Sciarra letter, in which I  summarize the history of the case, as well as where it fell short in my view, in terms of class size, public process, accountability and compliance.

Even in the first few years, when NYC did get all the extra funding that had been promised, class sizes also increased -- despite a provision in the state law requiring that the city be reducing class size in exchange for the funds.

Lessons learned:  

• How money is spent is as important as the extra funding;
• Enforcement, compliance and accountability mechanisms are critical;
•  Do not rely on any city or state governmental body to do any of the above;
• This time, continuing court oversight should be required, to ensure that the specific conditions that the court found deprived children of their constitutional right to a sound basic education are addressed, including class size.
2012 Nov CFE Ltr Re 2013-14 Budget Final Lessons from CFE

Deadline is tomorrow; please send an email about class size today!

Please send a message to the DOE  today; protesting the failure of the DOE to reduce class size and have allowed class sizes to increase to levels that  are damaging our children’s education and chance at success.    

The deadline for comment on the city’s defective Contracts for Excellence plan is tomorrow night, Wednesday, Nov. 23. 

Class sizes are now the largest they have been since eleven years in grades K-3, and are larger than they were when the state’s highest court said our children were denied their constitutional right to an adequate education in the Campaign for Fiscal Equity case, as a result of excessive class sizes.   In addition, we believe that there is $180 million missing from the city’s CFE plan, compared to the $531 million allocated by the state for this purpose.

We now have powerpoints showing  the rise in class size in your district’s schools, as well as other information  how the city has failed our children.  (If you don’t see your district, just email me at info@classsizematters.org and we will send it to you.) 

Already four different Community Education Councils have passed resolutions, protesting the sharp increase in class sizes and DOE’s violations of law: District 1 in Manhattan, Districts 20 and 21 in Brooklyn, and District 30 in Queens.  Some of these call for City Council hearings and others for State hearings on the matter.  If you would like a sample resolution for your CEC or PTA, let me know; the one just passed by CEC 21 is here; CEC 1 is here.  

Again, the deadline for comment is tomorrow night Wednesday, Nov. 23, and DOE is supposed to send all public comments to the State Education department along with its proposed C4E plan. It is important that the state Commissioner know how dissatisfied parents are with the Bloomberg administration’s dereliction of duty to our children.  

A sample email is below; feel free to change it in any way you would like. Do it for your child, and do it for all NYC public school children.

And then have a happy Thanksgiving. 

________________________

To: contractsforexcellence@schools.nyc.gov

 As a parent, I would like to protest that class sizes have now increased four years in a row, citywide and in my child’s school, despite the fact that the city was mandated to reduce class size in all grades starting in 2007.  This is the final year of the city’s five year class size reduction plan, and class sizes in the early grades are now the largest in eleven years.

DOE has failed to allocate a single penny specifically towards class size reduction and instead has cut repeatedly cut school budgets, even when they received millions more from the state in C4E funding and overall education aid.  The city’s refusal to reduce class size has severely damaged my child’s opportunity to learn.    

 [optional: My child is in  [ fill in name]  school, in district  [fill in number], with  a class size of x in [fill in] grade. ]

 The state should immediately force the city to revise its Contract for Excellence proposal, by allocating the $180 million missing from the plan that the state provided, and use it to hire more teachers.  The state should also implement a corrective action plan that would require the city exercise proper oversight and start reducing class size, instead of continuing to slash school budgets, eliminating thousands of teaching positions and wasting precious education dollars on failed programs that do not help our children learn, like more testing, technology, consultants and bureaucrats. 

Otherwise, the state as well as the city will have failed to do its duty by NYC’s children.

Yours sincerely,

Your name, child’s school and district

Email address