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dollars in new funding has been targeted to class size reduction
and the NYC Departmentof Education still lacks basic accountability
and responsiveness to this issue.Leonie Haimson, Executive Director
of Class Size Matters "Smaller classes are the toppriority of
parents. In return for targeted class reduction funds, the DOE
promised toreduce class in all grades, so that by the 2011-2012
school year, average class sizeswould be no larger than 19.9 in
grades K-3, 22.9 in grades 4-8, and 24.5 in core academicclasses in
high school, with annual targets to be achieved each year until
then. Yet theDOE has failed to make any of their reduction targets,
and in the last two years, classsizes have increased -- by the
largest amount in eleven years. The DOE and theChancellor are
violating the trust of taxpayers, by failing to use hundreds of
millions ofdollars for the critical purpose for which they were
intended."Billy Easton, Executive Director of the Alliance for
Quality Education, said, The DOEappears to be dodging and weaving
around the accountability requirements ofthe Campaign for Fiscal
Equity funding. Since the DOE committed to use a significantportion
of these funds to reduce class sizes, it is reasonable for parents
and the public to
expect class sizes to have gone down, but instead they are going
up. Where is theaccountability for how the money is
spent?"Manhattan Borough President Scott M. Stringer said, For far
too long, DOE hasneglected to put CFE funding where it belongs - in
the classroom. But this breach of thepublic trust is about more
than just funding, it's about living up to the promises made tothe
parents of public school kids. When it comes to respecting parents,
it feels like theDOE goes one step forward and two steps back, and
that needs to change.
The lawsuit charges that the DOE has sought to evade its
statutory responsibilities, hasrefused to perform a duty imposed by
law, and says the departments conduct revealsthat city students,
parents, community leaders and educators have been duped by a
BOEadministration that maintains it will spend tax dollars on
specific programs and thenrefused to require that its own
principals carry through those obligations.The lawsuit says the DOE
has abdicated its obligation to ensure that money it committedto
being spent on specific programs is actually spent on those
programs, and thatofficials have repeatedly admitted that ... they
have not required and will not requireprincipals to spend any
portion of their school budgets in any specific way.
BACKGROUNDIn April 2007 the State Legislature, as part of its
proposed solution to the problems
identified in the Campaign for Fiscal Equity litigation,
directed hundreds of millions ofdollars in state funding to local
districts, including New York City. The funds werecontingent on
local districts adoption of spending policies on specific
improvements,including reducing class size.The states Contracts for
Excellence began statewide that fall as a multi-part
programinvolving class size-reduction, full-day kindergarten,
academic after-school programs, therestructuring of high schools
and middle schools, and other initiatives. New York City
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was the only jurisdiction required to include class size
reduction in its Contract forExcellence agreement. From 2007-08
through 2009-10 the DOE received $760.7 milliontargeted
specifically to class size reduction.The lawsuit charges that in
the third school year after the beginning of the Contract
forExcellence program, one-third of all second graders in New York
City are in classes of25 or more, despite the DOEs Five Year Plan
that provided for 20.3 students or fewer inthe 2009-10 school year.
In fourth grade more than half of all students are in classes of25
or more, while in eighth grade 85 percent of students are in
classes of 25 or more. Inhigh schools about one-quarter of all
students are in some classes with 34 or morestudents, well above
the Five Year Plan target of about 25 students in such classes.
SUPPLANTING OF CITY FUNDSThe lawsuit also charges that in
violation of the Contract for Excellence, class size fundswere used
to supplant instead of supplement City funds.
Among the schools cited in the lawsuit, PS 85 in School District
10 in the Bronx had
more than $500,000 allocated to its budget for class size
reduction. However, despite anincrease in enrollment, the school
reduced the number of regular classroom teachers byone and class
sizes increased to as much as 31 students in the early grades.
Meanwhilethe city cut its funding to the school by about
$556,000.
PS 1 is District 7 got $276,647 fro class size reduction. Total
enrollment went up 48, butno new teachers were hired and the number
of classes was reduced. Average classes wereas large as 31 in 1st
grade. The city cut its funding to the school by nearly
$305,000.Even before class size increases of recent years, New York
City classes were on averageabout ten percent higher than in the
rest of the state for grades K-6, and as much as 40percent higher
in high schools.The suit was filed in New York State Supreme Court
in Bronx County.
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