Parents have pressed the New York Legislature for years to mandate smaller class sizes. They are close to achieving their goal.
State lawmakers have struck an agreement on bills that would extend mayoral control of the New York City school system for two years and mandate reductions in public school class size.
State Sen. John Liu of Queens, who chairs his chamber’s New York City education committee, and Assembly Education Chair Michael Benedetto confirmed the deal Tuesday morning.
“As you can imagine, there were many parties to the negotiation,” Liu said in an interview with Gothamist. “At the end of the day – or I should say at the end of the night – the Senate and Assembly concurred with this pair of bills.”
Legislative leaders reached the agreement late Monday, introducing a pair of bills that will be ready for a vote Thursday – the last day of the Legislature’s annual session in Albany. The two-year timeframe is less than what Mayor Eric Adams and Gov. Kathy Hochul were lobbying for and is designed to give parents more control over school governance
Class Size
If passed, the class size bill could dramatically shrink classes, a move many parents and educators say is the key to improving public school students’ academic and social growth.
The new bill would cap kindergarten through third grade classes at 20 students; fourth through eighth grade classes at 23 students; and high school classes at 25 students.
That’s compared to current caps for kindergarten at 25 students; first through sixth grade at 32 students; middle school classes at 30 (for Title I schools) or 33 students (for non-Title I schools); and high school classes at 34 students.
The reduction would be phased in starting this fall, and would have to be complete by 2027. If the city does not comply, money will be withheld.
“If enacted I think it will be a sea change for New York City students and their ability to learn,” said Leonie Haimson, executive director of the advocacy group Class Size Matters. “These are really, really big class size changes, but they’re within our grasp.”
Haimson has been advocating for Class size reduction for many years. She has led countless rallies and organized parent actions. This act is a tribute to the power of parents.
The same bill will renew mayoral control for two years. Mayor Eric Adams had hoped for more. After two decades off mayoral control, it has lost its luster.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I always found class size to be crucial. If one wants to attend to individual learning styles in students, one needs to attend to the needs (as perceived) of each of those students. Personally, I found my limit (High School) at about 20 students per class (maybe 18). Beyond that, the ‘classroom’ transformed into a ‘lecture hall’. I didn’t want to ‘lecture’. I wanted to interact (throughout my career) and, as a result, made sure I taught in places where that was possible.
‘Interaction’ not only allows the students to learn, but the teacher as well.
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The only power over school districts should be from elected school boards that answer to local voters. CEOs and mayors should not hold that level of power over OUR children.
But for that to work, there also must be campaign finance reform for local elections, including school boards, that no one outside of a city, town, and public school district is allowed to donate money to those campaigns on top of a donating-spending cap creating a level playing field.
Anything else is insane.
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Yep. That has proven to be the very best (though messy) formula.
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Not federal legislation or federal courts? I had thought you supported The decision in Brown, but I am certainly willing to be corrected about your position.
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How did this work out in California?
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It was magnificent in California when we mandated class size caps in certain grades, until corporate reformsters came along and did away with them. In 2005, I had 20 students in each class and was able to truly teach. By 2015, I had over 40 students in a class and was able to do little more than go through the motions of teaching. After our 2019 strike in Los Angeles, the class size caps have been annually reduced, and lately, sans pandemic, I have been empowered to do more teaching. I can give more feedback on essays. I can manage misbehavior more easily. I can talk to more students more often.
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Mayoral control is heinous, but I would probably be willing to trade it for 25 students in a secondary class. It depends, though. If Mayor Villaraigosa (or Mayor Bloomberg) was still in office, I wouldn’t sacrifice anything for having a school board. In today’s climate, I think this is a win for NYC.
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Does this legislation include more money to pay for more teachers and classrooms?
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Respectfully, does legislation to declare war include more money to pay for more soldiers and barracks?
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It empowers the government to spend as necessary to defeat the enemy instead of giving freebies to charter management organizations and data collection.
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A valid point but the Federal Government can print money .It can even keep the cost of that war off the Budget . A school district can not.
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One of the most important influences on teaching is overall number of students seen per day. I have a friend who taught at a fine private school (not some set academy). The heaviest load he ever taught was 65 total students.
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My lord. Wonderful. I typically had a couple hundred.
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And that was just insane.
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When I began teaching in Boston, class size at middle and high schools was a maximum of 45! students. The Boston Teachers Union made it a priority to get to smaller maximums through decades of collective bargaining. We recognized at the negotiation table that there were costs for doing so and took smaller salary increases to offset some of these costs. Teachers made clear to the union leadership that the tradeoff was worthwhile because the job was easier to do.
Our maxima are now
Grades K1-2: 22
Grades 3-5: 25
Grades 6-8: 28
Grades 9-12: 31
and there are exceptions which lower class size for inclusion classes, bilingual, ESL, SEI and SLIFE programs. So many more of our students are high needs than when I began teaching, that it’s obvious class size has a huge impact on what teachers can accomplish.
Of course, when it’s time for a new contract, there are always efforts to get rid of these limits, which we resist tenaciously.
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Students with special needs require smaller classes and more individualized attention.
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Right; inclusion classes are those where special needs kids are included in a mainstream classroom.
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Some other very interesting for NYC schools: the city is launching two remote-only high schools. I think this probably gives remote school a post-pandemic toehold in NYC public schools. This is going to get a lot bigger.
https://ny.chalkbeat.org/2022/6/1/23150779/nyc-virtual-schools-remote-learning-ninth-grade
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It gives remote schools RUN AND OVERSEEN BY THE DOE a toehold.
The real problem isn’t virtual schools, per se. It is virtual schools that have absolutely no oversight and run by folks interested in promoting virtual schools and whose self-interest and bank accounts are enhanced by promoting virtual schools.
Having a virtual school that is a real public school that is part of the system and not separate or “competing” with the system that would be a service to students who would need that is not a bad thing. It is better than those families paying tens of thousands of dollars for some subpar for-profit school.
What would be a disaster would be allowing virtual “charters” to corrupt this system. The entire SUNY Charter Institute board needs to be fired and replaced with folks who aren’t lackeys and know-nothings.
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