‘Parents Want Small Classes’

The results of this survey mirror those of most other recent public opinion polls in which lowering class size is the reform cited most often as the best way to improve city schools [“Study: Parents Want Small Class Sizes To Be Top Priority,” Deborah Kolben, New York, December 29, 2005].

Not surprising given the decades of research evidence that smaller classes work – at improving student performance and helping to close the achievement gap, as well as ancillary benefits such as reducing disciplinary problems.

Unfortunately, the Bloomberg administration has been largely unresponsive on this issue. Data released in September by the Independent Budget Office show that, during the past three years under mayoral control, class sizes in grades K-3 shrunk just 2%, while student enrollment in those grades decreased by almost 6%. Kindergarten classes did not decrease in size at all during the past three years, despite a 2% decline in enrollment.

Worse, the administration’s allocation plan for funds due New York City as a result of the Campaign for Fiscal Equity lawsuit would devote just over 2% to reduce class size, but would spend more than 11% to enlarge the bureaucracy by adding more administrators and leasing space for them.

In the face of this indifference, members of our coalition gathered signatures of more than 100,000 concerned New Yorkers supporting a ballot initiative to reduce class sizes in city schools to levels comparable to those in the rest of the state, which average 18 to 22 students.

Predictably, this administration bumped our class size proposal off the ballot, but we are challenging them in court in an effort to give voters the last word.

JAN ATWELL
Coordinator
New Yorkers for Smaller Classes
www.newyorkersforsmallerclasses.org
Manhattan

‘Parents Want Small Classes’

It is no surprise that New York City parents see class size reduction as their top priority; for more than a generation, our children have suffered by being crammed into the largest classes in the state and some of the largest in the nation [“Study: Parents Want Small Class Sizes To Be Top Priority,” Deborah Kolben, New York, December 29, 2005].

The Court of Appeals ruled that class sizes were too large in city schools to provide our students with their constitutional right to an adequate education.

Though class sizes have fallen slightly in the early grades due to enrollment decline, last year 75% of city districts still reported average class sizes of more than 20 children a class in between kindergarten and grade three.

Moreover, average class sizes in the middle grades have not improved significantly in the past six years and remain at 28 and above; in most of our large high schools, classes still contain 30 students or more.

These huge classes result directly in our abysmal 8th grade test scores and unconscionably high dropout rates. Compare this to the rest of the state, where classes average between 20 and 22 students in these grades.

The biggest outrage is that this administration has no plan to improve class sizes in the middle and upper grades, no matter how much money our schools receive as a result of the Campaign for Fiscal Equity case.

Despite the fact that over 100,000 New Yorkers signed petitions this spring to place a proposition on the ballot that would require smaller class sizes in all grades by using a portion of these funds, the Bloomberg administration is attempting to block this question from ever appearing on the ballot, having decided that voters should have no say on this critical issue.

LEONIE HAIMSON
Executive Director
Class Size Matters
www.classsizematters.org
Manhattan

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