Talking points for class size hearings starting tomorrow Wed. May 22 in the Bronx; make your voices heard!

 The just-released DOE class size plan for next year fails on every account. Class size borough hearings begin this Wednesday May 22^nd.   Make your voices heard!

• Bronx – Wednesday, May 22, 2024 (6:00pm)
• Manhattan – Thursday, May 23, 2024 (6:00pm)
• Staten Island – Tuesday, May 28, 2024 (6:00pm)
• Queens – Wednesday, May 29, 2024 (6:00pm)
• Brooklyn – Thursday, May 30, 2024 (6:00pm)

To register and receive the Zoom link, go to https://learndoe.org/contractforexcellence/ The links will be available by 5 PM the day of the hearing.

Our talking points are available as a pdf here, and below.  But feel free to draw from your own experiences or that of your child, and your perspective.  Thanks!

Talking points for class size hearings

The state passed the class size law nearly two years ago, yet the DOE has still taken no steps to ensure compliance with the law. Instead, their policies have caused class sizes to increase due to repeated cuts of school budgets, while also slashing their spending on more space. Their draft class size “plan”, posted May  7, makes insufficient investments in new teachers and space, and is bound to fail without significant improvements.

Lack of funding to hire enough teachers:

• DOE fails to invest sufficient funding to hire additional teachers to lower class size. The DOE says they will spend $137 million in “targeted” schools for this purpose, though they do not report which schools will receive this funding and how many more classes will meet the legal class size limits as a result.
• We estimate that this amount would allow for the hiring of only about 1,350 additional teachers, out of the 10,000 to 12,000 teachers the DOE itself says will be needed to comply with the law over the next four years. The longer the DOE waits to hire additional teachers, the more difficult it will become to ensure their quality and certification.
• Yet DOE plans to cut the budgets of as many as 760 schools due to projected enrollment decline and to impose a hiring freeze and vacancy reductions systemwide that could easily undo any positive impact from that $137 million. In fact, the city’s Financial plan projects a decrease of nearly 1,000 teachers next year, which would increase rather than decrease class size.
• At the same time, they fail to allocate any of the more than $800 million of Contracts for Excellence funds specifically for the purpose of reducing class size, or the $1.8 billion dollars the city has received in additional Foundation funding that they will have received since 2021-2022 school year. In addition, the Independent Budget Office projects a city surplus of more than $5 billion.

What the DOE should do instead to hire more teachers: 

• The DOE should provide funding to add at least 3,000 more teachers next year — one fourth of the additional number needed over over the next four years, at a cost of about $300 million. They should also promise to refrain from cutting any school’s budget, and not to impose a hiring freeze or vacancy reductions.

Lack of spending to create enough space

• The DOE refuses to create sufficient space for smaller classes. Principals at 650 schools reported to DOE in their survey that they currently cannot comply with the class size limits due to inadequate classroom space. Yet the new proposed five-year capital plan cuts more than $2 billion for new capacity compared to the current plan and would create only about 22,000 additional seats – one tenth of the number that the School Construction Authority itself claims will be necessary.
• A provision in the state budget passed in April requires the DOE to “increase planned spending on classroom construction by $2.0 billion” in order to be able to achieve the class size limits. Yet Instead of building more schools, the Mayor is planning to spend at least $6.8 billion for new jails –$2.7 billion more than the $4.1 billion currently dedicated for new school construction.
• The Queens jail will cost at least $3.9 billion, which is far more than the plan has for new schools in Queens; the Bronx jail to cost at least $2.9 billion. Yet there is not a single dollar specified in the capital plan for new schools to be built in the Bronx.
• The plan only Identifies new seats in six districts (2, 25, 27, 30, 31) plus one new high school in Brooklyn & one in Staten Island. 77% of the new seats remain unidentified as to borough, district, or grade level.
• Without an expanded and accelerated plan to build more schools, the DOE will never meet the timelines to achieve the class size limits in the law.

What the DOE should do instead to create more space:

• Immediately add at least $2 billion to the five-year capital plan, specifying where the new seats will be built by district, sub-district, and grade level, and explain how these additional seats will allow all schools over four years to reach the class size limits in the law.

Other problems with the DOE’s plan

• DOE proposes that every superintendent increase the percentage of classes in their district schools at or below the class size caps by 3%. Yet forcing superintendents and principals to lower class size without providing any more funding or space could create problems in many schools. Instead, it is DOE’s responsibility to ensure that every school has the resources needed to lower class size without negative tradeoffs to the overall quality of education students receive.
• The DOE also cites as an option to achieve the class size limits by expanding online learning. Forcing more students into remote classes, given the dismal results of this strategy during the pandemic, seems especially unwise and would likely undercut any of the benefits to student learning and social connection provided by smaller classes.

What the DOE should do instead:

• The DOE must create and implement an actual multi-year plan, showing which schools will receive additional funding to hire additional teachers to lower class size each year, and detailing where additional space will be created to allow the approximately 650 schools that do not currently have sufficient space to achieve the class size limits within the within the mandated time frame. If the DOE refuses to create this plan, the State Education Department should require them to do so.

 

DOE's lack of commitment to reducing class size and transparency on full display today at City Hall

Video of yesterday's Council budget hearing as well as briefing papers are posted here.

The lack of commitment to reducing class size that plagued the DOE through the Bloomberg years and that continues under the new administration was in full display during the City Council budget hearings today at City Hall.  So was a lack of transparency, which if anything has worsened under our new Mayor.

First class size: In response to the questions from the Chair of the Finance Committee Julissa Ferreras about class size in Renewal schools, Chancellor Farina responded that while class size is about 22-23 in the early grades, instead of lowering class size she will install reading specialists.  Middle school class sizes are around 29, but she is introducing guidance counselors in these schools instead, which she considers more important, and in high school, they look at credit accumulation; (like at Dewey HS?) 

Though we found that 60% of Renewal schools had at least some classes that were 30 or more, the Chancellor said that “We do not have large class sizes in Renewal schools generally, because unfortunately (?) enrollment in these schools has not been as high as it should be.” 

Later she went on to say that some Renewal schools are going to purposely INCREASE class size, so that they could also do small group instruction (which was eliminated from schools with the new UFT contract.)  She said the same change would happen in many of the PROSE schools, now able to violate the class size limits in the union contract, by giving lecture classes or team teaching, supposedly so that they can also work with struggling students in smaller groups at other times.  One school apparently combines physics and chemistry – in one room at one time.   Others combine four classes into one.  How any of this will help kids learn I have no idea, but this appears to be Farina’s favorite innovation.  If it is innovation, it appears to be going in the wrong direction.  

Transparency: CM Ferreras also asked the Chancellor why the capital plan was released over two months late this year.  (It is usually released at the beginning of February but this year was not released until May.)  The Chancellor said they went over it with “a fine tooth comb” and it was “revised and revised.”  

In fact, almost nothing in the plan changed except for adding thousands of new preK seats, as Deputy Chancellor Elizabeth Rose admitted in her testimony later in the day.  The DOE did not change the number of K12 seats, nor did they site any of the 4,900 seats (supposedly for class size reduction)  that were added in January 2014.

Ferreras said the lateness of the plan was unacceptable, that legally they were required to submit it by March 1, and the DOE had hampered the Council’s opportunity to look through the plan carefully.

Chair of the Education Committee Danny Dromm pointed out that the total of $13.5 billion spent  has not changed the November plan, which was a shame,  since the Mayor has announced his intention to add 200K new units of housing, and the plan was already by DOE admission, 16,000 seats short.  What are the plans going forward to address the need, considering this shortage? 

Farina was less than direct in her response.  Where there are possible areas for sale, or lease, they will take advantage of it, she said; where they might be less enrollment, we could shift around spending.  Ray Orlando, DOE budget director added, we have the Education Construction Fund for development potential.  We know must keep up with neighborhood growth.  Farina said, some developers are coming to us with plans where schools will be put into their developments. (like where?)

Dromm asked why there was a decrease in the number of new seats since the city’s last ten year capital plan.  Orlando: you should ask Deputy Chancellor Elizabeth Rose.  The ten year capital plan is updated every April. There are more opportunities to improve.  

Dromm: I’m concerned about $2B decrease in the new ten year plan, since the preliminary ten year plan.  [There's a $5 billion cut since the last ten year plan in 2008-2017] Some people say we need 25,000 to 50,000 more seats than 16,000 currently acknowledged. (Yes, that’s what our analysis in Space Crunch showed clearly, based on DOE data.)

When Deputy Chancellor Elizabeth Rose appeared in the afternoon to testify about the capital plan, she was no more forthright in her responses.  She had no answer for why the plan was months late, only that, fortunately, after being aligned with the city's ten year capital plan, it had changed very little. (!!) 

She had no answer for why the DOE still has not sited any of the 4,900 seats for class size reduction,  first proposed a year and a half ago in January 2014, only they were still going over the "criteria" for where to put them -- even as they located 6800 new seats for preK in the last few months.

She had no answer for when the DOE would close the gap despite their admitted need for 16,000 more seats.  (The real need is much larger.)

She continually described the crisis of school overcrowding that exists in nearly all parts of the city, with nearly half of all students attending schools at 100% utilization or more, as "pocket overcrowding". 

She had no answer for why the recommendations of the Blue Book working group appointed last year to improve the DOE’s utilization formula for school overcrowding had not yet been released. (Reportedly, their recommendations were made last December.)   

Here is a sample of her exchange with Dromm on this issue: 

Dromm: The recommendations of Blue Book task force were ready months ago. When will they be released?  

Rose: We’re looking forward to releasing them soon as soon as we can. 

Dromm: What is the cause for delay?

Rose: We are continuing to work this through our agency, what this mean for us. 

Ferreras: I’m really sorry, but you’re not giving us a date.  We need to understand and get an answer.  Either tell us when they will be released or explain the delay.

Rose: We are continuing to work on this and look forward to sharing them with you. 

But the lack of transparency around this issue didn’t compare with the complete misinformation offered by Rose and SCA President Lorraine Grillo about the state’s contribution to the funding of the plan.  

Dromm pointed out that schools are a far smaller percentage of the new ten year city capital plan compared to the previous 2008-2017 ten year plan – only 28% compared to 34%, under Bloomberg. (For more in this, see my testimony.)  This is regrettable given that the Mayor has said education is a priority, Dromm added.  He then asked where the funding for the plan comes from. 

Grillo responded that previously, the state had paid for 50% of the funds for school construction but that now, the city has taken over entire funding since state building aid is "expiring."

Rose agreed, claiming that the city's portion of  ten year capital plan for schools has more than "now
more than doubled." Because of this, the city will be covering the entire cost, spending $20.3 billion for school construction and repair compared to $9.8 billion before.

But none of that is true.  As the Independent Budget Office reported today, the state formula for building aid for schools has not changed one iota.  The state is still reimbursing the city for 50% of the cost.  The only change is that the city is now floating the bonds rather than the state, with minimal if any change in cost or risk to the city.

Why is the administration hiding this fact?  The Office of Management and Budget has also inexplicably taken out all information concerning the state contribution to school construction and repair out of their ten year capital plan report, as opposed to every ten year plan produced during the Bloomberg years.  See the new 10 year capital plan put out by OMB: 

Education spending in Ten Year Capital strategy (FY 2016-2025)

 Compare that to the last ten year plan for 2008-2017 – put out during the Bloomberg administration:

Education spending in Ten Year Capital strategy (FY 2008-2017)

Why is the DOE now hiding the billions they receive from the state? Is it their excuse for the inexcusable spending cuts to education they are planning to make? 

Whatever the explanation, the misinformation provided today at City Hall was truly regrettable, and yet more evidence that the officials who are supposed to be working for parents, concerned citizens, and taxpayers, are either astonishingly ignorant or refusing to tell us the truth.

Despite worsening overcrowding, de Blasio's ten-year capital plan allocates less for schools than Bloomberg's

See  the testimony below that I gave today to the NYC Council on the deficiencies of the proposed Mayor's proposed executive and capital budgets for schools, which if adopted as is would lead to larger class sizes and even more overcrowded schools.

The school capital plan was released more than three months late, supposedly  to align with de Blasio's new ten-year city overall capital plan, which cuts back on education compared to the previous ten-year plan, developed under Bloomberg.

The new ten year plan has schools at only 28% of overall capital spending, compared to 34% in the Bloomberg plan, and cuts back the spending by almost $5 billion.  See the above charts to compare.

CSM Testimony Executive and Capital Budget 5.18.15

Bloomberg's original campaign promises: how'd he do?

Bloomberg recently claimed to have fulfilled nearly all of his original campaign promises when it comes to education.

But guess what? There are some promises he left out. Here are some he made when he first ran for mayor in 2001:

Better Teachers, Smaller Class Sizes and More Accountable Schools

Studies confirm that one of the greatest detriments to learning is an overcrowded classroom. ... For students, a loud, packed classroom means a greater chance of falling behind. For teachers, class overcrowding means a tougher time teaching and giving students the attention they need. Here are a few new ideas to improve schools and standards, and to reduce class sizes:

Hire more certified teachers to reduce class sizes — especially in the K-3rd grades.

This clearly hasn't happened. Numerous audits from the state and city comptroller have shown the administration’s misuse of hundreds of millions of dollars meant to reduce class size. According to the Times, there are 1600 fewer classroom teachers and more than 10,000 additional administrators, secretaries, and out of classroom personnel since Bloomberg took office. Last year, class sizes increased by the greatest amount in ten years.

Take full advantage of federally-funded class size reduction programs.

This hasn’t happened either; only God and perhaps Brian Fleischer, the DOE auditor, knows how the city has spent millions in federal class size reduction funds. I take that back; probably Fleischer has no idea either.

Free up more space for students in overcrowded schools by moving bureaucrats out.

Actually, the Department of Education did move some district offices out of school buildings the first year of Bloomberg's administration, but with the creation of all the new small schools and charters in recent years, more and more administrative offices have eaten up classroom space and contributed to the worsening overcrowding crisis in our schools. Now it is common to see special education and intervention services given in hallways, closets and stairwells.

Here are even more unfulfilled campaign promises from Bloomberg’s first campaign:

“Promise: Integrate and coordinate early child care and education system to foster the healthy development of all children, especially those children who are low-income and disadvantaged.”

Actually, this year the city eliminated 3,000 daycare slots, throwing thousands of new students into already overcrowded Kindergarten classes.

““We should build a major high school and university complex on Governors Island in partnership with one or more of our great private universities. The room is there for athletic facilities, laboratories, workshops, classrooms, etc. This would also free up many existing buildings in all boroughs for junior high school, elementary school and special education uses.”

One small high school is due to open next fall on Governors island, eight years later, and far smaller than the major high school complex originally promised.

“Have the Transitional Finance Authority sell bonds backed by the sales tax revenues currently committed to paying of the Municipal Assistance Corporation debt that ends in 2007 and use that money to build new schools.”

Never happened. Instead, the share of city's capital spending going to school construction is at a ten year low.

“Assemble city-owned land for private development to build large-scale housing developments, schools and hospitals.

Never happened.

And how about this statement made by Bloomberg , regarding the use of city funds to build stadiums instead of schools, as quoted in the Times shortly after he was elected?

“I think everybody understands we have to modernize our facilities,” [Bloomberg] said at a news conference, separate from one held by Mr. Giuliani. “We have to have the best facilities for sports, for entertainment. We have to have housing, we have to have schools, and there are conflicting needs.”

Mr. Bloomberg added: “I don’t yet know the numbers, whether you could justify stadiums at this time. Clearly we’re going into very difficult economic times, and we’re going to have to make some choices.”

About 50,000 seats have been created in schools over the last seven years, with more than twice that number in the heavily subsidized Yankees and Mets stadiums. I guess he made his choices after all.

City's claims re school construction are as inflated as the school grades

See today’s column by Juan Gonzalez in which he shows how the administration’s claims as regards school construction are as inflated as the school grades.

Many buildings claimed as “new school construction” are instead space leased in office buildings or parochial schools. What’s the problem with counting leased seats the same as new school construction? For one thing, the city never includes in their calculation how many seats are lost each year, when leased spaces lapse.

See this list of leases for Manhattan schools alone -- with thousands of seats subtracted due to lost leases in recent years. And the list is not even complete. For example, Baruch College HS, which lost its space last year, will spend one year in the former School for the Physical City, until that lease is finished, with no permanent home yet for the future.

The city’s press release also blatantly claims that this year’s total of 13,000 seats plus last year’s total, “represents the most-ever new classroom seats to come on line in a two-year period since the School Construction Authority was created in 1988.”

This is false. As Juan writes, “During three of those years, Giuliani created an average of 19,000 new seats. Under Bloomberg, the city has created more than 14,000 seats only once, in 2005, and school overcrowding continues to grow.”

No matter how you slice it, nearly any two years during the Giuliani administration produced bigger totals. Click on the chart above, with data taken directly from Mayor’s Management Reports.

Also, while the press release claims that “the 2005-2009 Capital Plan [was] the largest school construction effort in the City’s history,” this is not true either. Many previous administrations have built many more seats. Even Kathleen Grimm, Deputy Chancellor, was forced to admit this at a recent City Council hearing, when Robert Jackson presented her with the facts. See this account at Gotham Schools.

And the overcrowding has worsened, contrary to what City Hall claims. According to the DOE’s “Blue Book” 48 percent of students attended overcrowded schools as of the 2007-8 school year. This compares to 43 percent of students the year before. (We have no data as of 2008-9 as of yet.) Hundreds of children were put on waiting lists for Kindergarten this fall.

The new five year capital plan further cuts the number of new seats by 60 percent -- which will provide only approximately one third of the space necessary to eliminate current overcrowding and reduce class size to state-mandated levels -- and will do nothing to address the increased enrollment expected in neighborhoods throughout the city.

Three recent reports, from the NYC Comptroller, from the Manhattan Borough President, and from the Campaign for a Better Capital Plan, have each pointed out how school construction has lagged considerably behind the needs of our growing school-age population.

Just yesterday, the Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer put out yet another report, School Daze, showing how the DOE’s enrollment projections have consistently fallen short, and do not take into count the growth of new residential development, making it likely that thousands of Manhattan children will be left without schools in the near future.

Our classrooms are already overcrowded, and our children are facing a worsening crisis unless the city faces the truth – and builds more schools. In a recent survey, 86 percent of principals said that their class sizes were already too large to provide a quality education.

Indeed, the city is supposed to grow by a million residents by 2030 – without any plan to deal with the increased number of schoolchildren this will entail. Yet the only mention of schools in the PlaNYC report that detailed the need for improvements in every other aspect of the city’s infrastructure was a recommendation that excess school buildings should be renovated into more housing.

Already, the city’s share of capital spending going to schools has fallen sharply – click on the chart to the right. This disturbing trend is likely to continue, given the hugely inadequate new five year capital plan.

Message to City Council: Build schools, not jails!

Check out the Class Size Matters press conference with Comptroller Thompson, Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, Councilmembers Jackson, Gerson, Yassky and Liu, and the organization Stop the Brooklyn House of Detention, about the need to use city capital funds to build schools not prisons.



See also the news story at Gotham Schools here ; the City Comptroller here, and the Manhattan Borough President's office here , and our press release here.

The proposed capital plan for schools will provide only about one third of the seats necessary to alleviate overcrowding and reduce class sizes to mandated levels -- and is completely inadequate considering the rising student population in neighborhoods throughout the city.

We could double the number of new school seats in the plan if we cancelled prison projects in the Bronx and in Brooklyn that are estimated at nearly one billion dollars -- that communities don't want and the city doesn't need. Riker's is only 75% full and our prison population is falling. Meanwhile, nearly half of our students are in severely overcrowded school buldings, there are hundreds of children are on waiting lists for Kindergarten, and enrollment is going up.

The city is also planning on building an extravagant police academy in Queens estimated at nearly a billion dollars: a 35 acre campus, with a police museum, residence for visiting lecturers, and a replica of a bodega, bank and subway station, along with 250 classrooms. How many police recruits are expected next year? Only 250 in July 2009, and none in January 2010.

Moreover each capital dollar we shift from other projects to schools generates two dollars for construction, as the state matches the city's spending on schools-- a valuable economic stimulus just when we need it the most. As CM Jackson said at the press conference, we get double the bang for the buck.

So call your councilmembers now -- just plug in your address here -- and tell them to move at least a billion dollars in capital funds from prisons and the police academy to new schools. While our prison population is going down, our schools are overcrowded and class sizes are rising. We need to build more schools now!

School construction funds blocked in stimulus bill

Well, you win some and you lose some.

The deal was made yesterday on the federal stimulus package. According to the WSJ, the "state stabilization fund" was increased to $53.6 billion from $44 billion, which is still far less than the $95 billion the House had originally proposed. There are estimates are that about $1 billion of that may come to NYC schools, which will help prevent massive teacher layoffs, though gaps in education funding will likely remain -- unless we continue to fight for restorations in the state and city budgets.

The biggest disappointment is that all targeted funds for new school construction were eliminated -- though districts can take funds out of the stabilization program to modernize or repair schools if they so choose.

According to the NY Times, the insistence of the GOP "moderates" about eliminating the school construction funds almost blocked the deal from happening:

House Democrats, angry over some of the cuts, particularly for school construction, initially balked at the deal and delayed a final meeting on Wednesday afternoon between House and Senate negotiators. ....Ms. Pelosi said at a news conference that the delay helped House Democrats win some final concessions, including an agreement to let states use some money in a fiscal stabilization fund for school renovations.

But not to build new schools.

For some reason, the GOP Senators were especially adamant that no federal funds should go to new school construction, which Republican members have been opposed to ever since the 1950's. During that era, President Eisenhower proposed a federal role in school construction, just as the feds were helping to build roads, bridges, etc. -- yet his own party blocked this from occurring.

Meanwhile, according to EdWeek, Klein was up in DC, emphasizing the need for federal funding for "data systems" and teacher performance pay! Which shows you where his priorities lie.

So, thanks to those of you who called and emailed -- we were partially successful, and at least we got the message across that NYC parents care about class size, new school construction and preventing layoffs of teachers.

Let's harness that energy in the weeks to come towards restoring the cuts in the state and city's education budget, and especially, to improve the administration's proposed capital budget for schools which remains pitifully inadequate.

See this earlier post by Joan Walsh in Salon, Party on GOP, bemoaning the fervent opposition of the Republican party to building new schools, despite the crying need for them. What could be more Un-American?

The need for a better capital plan; how you can help!

The lack of space in our schools – a problem that is getting worse every day in many neighborhoods -- is the biggest obstacle we have to providing a quality education for our kids.

Despite the worrisome economic news, we are going full steam ahead on our ABC campaign for a better capital plan for school construction, so that we can finally end school overcrowding and reduce class size.

On November 3, the Mayor is supposed to propose the next five-year capital plan, so we need as many parents, teachers and advocates as possible to get involved in this campaign – now!.

1- Click on this link and send a fax to the Mayor and Chancellor now!

2- Come to a rally at City Hall on Friday Oct. 3 at 9 AM -- with hearings to follow on school overcrowding. Here is a pdf flyer that you can distribute and post in your school; and here is a one-pager with more information on the need for a better capital plan.

3- There are postcards in every school for parents to sign; the UFT has distributed 63,000 to chapter leaders citywide. Please reach out to your PTA or SLT if you don’t know who the chapter leader is.

Our kids need more schools to learn and grow; and as a city, it would be disastrous to ignore this need, even in the current economic situation.

This principle has support from a surprising source --the Mayor himself. See this excerpt from last Sunday’s Meet the Press:

MAYOR BLOOMBERG: No, we're not going to make the mistake--the mistake that was made in the '70s is …we stopped supporting our cultural institutions and building parks and schools and all those kinds of things. We are going to go ahead and continue those things. …we are not going to walk away from our city. That's the prescription for disaster. When you do that, your tax base leaves, and the rest of this country, as well as New York, are going to have exactly the same decisions to make. The taxpayers are going to have to decide do they want to have a future or not? If they don't want to have a future, then they're not going to have to pay as much now, but if they want to leave a better world for their kids, they're going to have to pay the bills up front.

We want to hold the Mayor at his word. Please don’t allow our kids suffer just because Wall Street made a lot of bad loans. If we don’t build enough schools, this will not only damage our children’s future but the economic future of this city as a whole.

More info on our campaign is available on our new website: A better capital plan.