The DOE has put forward a proposal in which principals, in consultation with their School Leadership Teams, can apply for funds for next year to hire more teachers to lower class size if they already have the space for smaller classes. Yet more than half of principals who responded to a DOE survey last year said they did not have the space to reduce class size to mandated levels. Moreover, the level of school overcrowding worsened in two thirds of school districts last year. 40% of students were enrolled in overutilized according to the “Blue Book,” which many observers believe underestimates the actual level of overcrowding in our schools.

The DOE also cut school construction funding by $2.5B after the class size law was passed. Although much of that funding was recently restored due to the state legislature’s insistence, a declining number of schools are slated to be built over the next three years, and over 70% of school seats are still undetermined as to district, subdistrict, or grade level.

Instead of ensuring that currently overcrowded schools will have the space to lower class size, DOE has proposed multiple exemptions to the law, including permanent waivers for “overenrolled” and/or “overcrowded” schools. Yet DOE controls enrollment in an inequitable, non-transparent fashion, by forcibly overcrowding some schools while other elite schools are allowed to limit their enrollments, enabling them to cap their class sizes at much lower levels.

For example, the Special Music school in District 3 has regularly receives about 400 applications for Kindergarten annually, yet they admit only 15 Kindergarten students allowing them to cap class sizes in grades K-5 at 15 students or less. Bard Early College high schools in Manhattan and Queens receive more than 5,000 applications for 9th grade each year, and yet accept only about 150 students, enabling class sizes to be capped to 24 students or less.

Balancing enrollment between schools would also benefit all schools. Currently overenrolled schools would be able to offer smaller classes and access to lunch, gym, and other services at more appropriate times, while underenrolled schools would have more adequate budgets, and thus better able to provide art, music, other electives, and advanced coursework necessary for a quality education.
Moreover, DOE already caps enrollment and directs incoming students to other schools if necessary to meet UFT contractual class size limits and should do the same to meet the lower class size caps now required by state law.

The DOE also proposes to exempt all schools from meeting the class size caps if there are five students or less per grade over the limits, and/or if they are sent more students in the middle of the year. Instead, schools should receive requisite funding to hire more teachers if either occurs, as they already are supposed to do when UFT class sizes limits are violated.

Instead of allowing these multiple exemptions which could forever deny the right to smaller classes for up to half or more NYC students, we urge you to allow principals to apply for class size funding and cap their enrollments at lower levels starting next year if there are underutilized schools of the same grade levels nearby. The DOE should agree to hold their budgets harmless, so that whatever additional funding they receive to hire more teachers is not wiped out by concurrent cuts to their Fair Student Funding.

In neighborhoods where nearly all schools are overcrowded, DOE should immediately implement an accelerated plan to site and build more schools by adopting the practical proposals of the Class Size Working Group.

Finally, the DOE should develop an actual multi-year class size plan, demonstrating how sufficient funding and space will be provided over the next three years to allow all NYC students to benefit from the smaller classes they need and deserve, and which the New York’s highest court said was their right under the State Constitution.

Sincerely yours,