How close is New York City to meeting the legal obligation to reduce the number of students, in every public school classroom? The answer is: Nothing is very clear yet!
Precisely in this scenario, the education commission of the Municipal Council presented this Thursday a draft bill that would require the Department of Education (DOE) report the actual size of all school classes.
This initiative would also require the DOE to share accurate data from each school district and county, the number and percentage of students in special programsbroken down by program type, grade, race/ethnicity, gender, and student English language status.
City Council Leader Rita Joseph presented the legislation at a hearing where she gathered testimony from DOE spokespersons, teachers, parents and organizations and defenders of educational quality.
“What we are fighting for is not negotiable. Access to quality education must be equal. And a very clear measure to achieve this is that we can evaluate exactly, what is happening in our classrooms right now”Joseph noted.
For the Brooklyn councilwoman, at this stage, where the way is being paved for municipal authorities to comply with the reduction in the number of students, per classroom, the participation of the community is imperative. community of parents and representatives as guarantors that the process is carried out in a balanced way.
In 2022 the governor Kathy Hochul signed a law that requires the DOE to minimize the number of children and adolescents in schools within five years, that is, in 2028.
Under the previous rules, classes generally had a limit of 30 to 34 students, depending on grade, with 25 students in kindergarten.
Under the new law, classes cannot exceed 20 students from kindergarten to third grade, 23 students between 4th and 8th grade and 25 students in high school. Special activities such as physical education, sports activities and artistic events are limited to 40 children.
“We are waiting for resources”
The conclusion of the municipal authorities who participated in the testimony agenda is that for schools to comply with this state law that will come into full effect in 2028, thousands of new teachers will be needed, at an annual cost of $1.3 billion to $2 billion.
This means at least the 4% of the operating budget of the entire departmentif contrasted with the current budget.
The other obstacle to be resolved is that “overcrowded” schools that need more space to expand areas and create more classrooms, the municipal construction agency estimates that the costs could amount to tens of billions of dollars. that will require more state and federal aid.
2024-03-01 11:00:00
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