Welcome to a new school year, and please take our 5-minute survey!

Welcome back to a new school year! The good news in NYC is that we finally have a Chancellor, Richard Carranza, who is progressive and believes in the importance of class size.

The bad news is that neither he nor the mayor have put in place any specific programs or incentives to encourage smaller classes – even in struggling schools with large numbers of disadvantaged students.

Outside NYC, school budgets in many states are still lower than they were in 2008 before the recession hit. In NYC, though our budget has grown, class sizes are still significantly larger than in 2008.

While the overall DOE budget increased this year by nearly $1 billion, not a single dime will be spent specifically to lower class size, and $200 million more will go to charter schools as their enrollment continues to grow. Nearly $31 million more will be spent on central administration, with more than $1.7 million to pay for the salaries of nine new Executive Superintendents.

Please let us know what the class sizes are this year in your child’s schools, by filling out our five-minute survey here. If you don’t know, ask your child’s teacher -- or ask your middle school or high school child to count heads. The UFT class size limits are posted here. (Subscribers outside NYC are also welcome to take the survey.)

Since projected student enrollment has declined slightly and the City Council successfully pushed for an extra $125 million so that all schools will receive at least 90% of their Fair Student Funding, we hope that this may help lead to slight decreases in average class size this year.

The DOE also announced that 21 new schools were opening this year, but 15 are charter schools. Only one new public elementary school opened in Queens – the most overcrowded borough – and in every borough there are neighborhoods still is suffering from school overcrowding.

This fall the DOE will propose a new five-year capital plan, and we are going to try to keep the Mayor at his word to fully fund this plan and provide all the new school seats that are needed to alleviate overcrowding and accommodate enrollment growth.

We are also going to push for dedicated funding for class size reduction. Let me know if you’re interested in helping with our campaign by replying to this message and/or by filling out our survey.

Welcome back, updated info on class size and other events happening next week

Dear parents: I hope your child had a good first day of classes today; or if you decided to sit it out today, starting next week.

1. I have posted an updated fact sheet with information about the city’s class size limits and goals, our class size lawsuit, and what you can do if your child’s class is too large.

Please also get in touch and let me know what your child’s class size is, as well as the grade level and school. This is critical information. The best way to find out is to count the class roster or ask your child’s teacher or parent coordinator.

2. Unfortunately, we anticipate class sizes larger than ever this year due to sharp budget cuts, the loss of 2,000 teaching positions, and a growth in enrollment of over 18,000 students. This, despite $200 million in funds that the city received from the federal government to prevent class size increases, which the DOE is refusing to spend this year, and 1700 teachers who remain on absent teacher reserve, who Klein refuses to allow principals to hire without having to pay for them out of their miniscule budgets, despite the fact that the city is already covering their full--time salaries.

Not to mention the nearly $1 billion in state funds the city has received in exchange for a promise to reduce class size, a promise that has been broken. More on this issue in the above fact sheet and on our blog.

3.On Wednesday, Sept. 15 at 12:30 PM I will be debating Shael Suransky, Deputy Chancellor and head of DOE’s Accountability office at NY Law School, 185 West Broadway; map here, on the failures of NCLB and other test-based accountability systems. To RSVP, just email jac@nyls.edu. Please come if you can!

The bursting of the state test score bubble in July revealed that there has been little progress in city schools over the last eight years, with more than 300 schools where at least two-thirds of students are not meeting state standards and where at least 20% of them are scoring at Level one. There has been no narrowing of the achievement gap in any grade or subject, according to the national exams known as the NAEPs, and even during the era of state test score inflation, there were neighborhoods where one in five students had been held back two or more times, as revealed in today’s Daily News. (Click on the map to the right.)

And yet the city has no plans to address this tragic situation except more of the same: more testing, more “data analysis” of test scores, and more holding back kids.

5. Finally, please join Class Size Matters, CEJ, and other groups on Thursday Sept. 16 at 11 AM, in front of Tweed at 52 Chambers St., to demand smaller classes and other necessary improvements to our schools, for the sake of our children. Hope to see you there!

And remember to let me know at classsizematters@gmail.com what the class sizes at your children’s school are this year. Even though Joel Klein and Michael Bloomberg do not care, I surely do!