Class Sizes Grew in New York City Despite '07 Deal to Cut Them - NYTimes.com

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Three years after a landmark agreement to cut class sizes in New York City’s public schools, classrooms are swelling across the city, a result of budget cuts and spending decisions that have reduced the teaching force.

According to the city’s Department of Education, elementary schools this year had the largest increases, with average class sizes growing to 23.7 students per class from 22.9 last year. In middle schools, class sizes climbed to 27 from 26.1; high school class sizes held at about 27.

Small classes are increasingly rare. Excluding special education classes, 22.4 percent of elementary and middle school students were in classes of 20 or fewer children two years ago. Now, only 13.7 percent are. Meanwhile, the percentage packed into classrooms with 28 students or more has jumped to 31 percent from 23 percent, according to an analysis by The New York Times.

The increases come despite a city commitment since 2007 to reduce class sizes across all grades in exchange for state money earmarked for that purpose. In January, the teachers union, along with civic organizations and local officials, filed a lawsuit to get the city to account for how the money, totaling $740 million, was being used. The city has argued that questions about the funds belong before the state commissioner of education, David M. Steiner, not in a court.

But the class size reduction plan assumed there would be much more additional money than ever materialized, which is one reason its targets have faded from reach.

According to the agreement, by 2012, the city’s kindergartens, for example, were to average less than 20 students. They averaged 20.7 students per class in 2007; this year, they had 22.

Over all, aid to schools across the state has been dropping. In the past year alone, city schools have had to absorb cuts of 4 percent.

State spending reductions are one of the largest challenges awaitingCathleen P. Black, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s choice to be the next chancellor, and given that the state faces another large deficit, it is possible that class sizes will continue to rise.

City officials said Wednesday that given the cuts, class sizes actually rose less than they could have.

In February, the city appealed to the state to excuse it from its class size reduction targets due to the economic downturn. Mr. Steiner agreed to allow the city to focus its class size reduction plans on just 75 of its 1,600 schools, chosen because they were both crowded and low performing.

Advocates fighting for smaller class sizes said Wednesday that it was disingenuous of the city to blame the economy alone for the swelling classes, because the city never mandated that principals use the extra funds to reduce class sizes. The lawsuit charges that the city has at times used the money to plug other holes in the budget.

In general, the city permits principals to use the class size reduction funds for other purposes, including to pay for specialized teachers and for team-teaching. But the city also officially ended a separate class size reduction program in the early grades, with principals receiving a memorandum in June telling them they could now spend those funds as they wished.

Michael Mulgrew, the president of the United Federation of Teachers, the teachers union, said that class sizes rose even when the economy was strong. “It’s clear that their intention was never to lower class size,” Mr. Mulgrew said. “They don’t believe in it.”

Overall student enrollment has remained relatively flat, at just over one million, but according to the union, there are 4,000 fewer teachers than there were two years ago, because many recent retirees have not been replaced.

At Public School 138 on Lafayette Avenue in the South Bronx, where class sizes now average 29 in fourth grade and 31 in third grade, Michelle Viera, a fourth-grade teacher, said that it was hard to even get the basics done. “Sometimes there’s just not enough materials,” she said. “We constantly have to copy things. There’s also a problem with discipline.”

Mildred Rivera, 39, said that her daughter Julianne, a second grader at P.S. 138, sometimes “doesn’t get attention from the teacher because she’s too busy with other kids.”

Other parents said they did not think the crowding was a problem, because their children’s teachers were good.

Perhaps the most influential study on class size, conducted in Tennessee in the 1980s, pointed to the benefits of small classes, particularly for poor and minority students. That study found that in kindergarten through third grade, students in small classes outperformed those in larger classes. But in the study, small classes were defined as those with 13 to 17 children — unthinkably small for most school districts.

Alan B. Krueger, a Princeton University professor who studies the economics of education, said he believed that there was evidence to support the benefits of small classes, even when those classes have more than 18 students. Plus, he said, class size reduction “is one of the few education reforms that I think we know what to do about.”

“The thing that’s in vogue now is to say, ‘We just need better teachers,’ yet no one knows how to screen to determine if someone’s a better teacher. No one knows how to train people to be better teachers.”

But Dan Goldhaber, director of the Center for Education Data and Research at the University of Washington, sees it differently, as do some other experts. “The effects of class size, if they exist, are small, and class size is really expensive,” he said.

When California embarked on a costly class size reduction effort in the mid-90s, Mr. Goldhaber pointed out, studies showed “marginal, if any, impact, and possibly some harm,” as many sub-par teachers were quickly hired to fulfill the mandate, and many well-qualified teachers left poorer urban schools for new slots elsewhere.

Part of the issue in New York is transparency in how the funds for class size reduction are being used, said Geri Palast, the executive director of the Campaign for Fiscal Equity, the organization that brought the lawsuit that led to the landmark agreement three years ago. While her organization has repeatedly asked the city for information about how much was spent each year on class size reduction, so far, she said, the organization has only been told what the city plans to spend at the start of each school year.

“We are concerned that there was money allocated for that purpose that was not used for that purpose,” she said.

Elissa Gootman, Robert Gebeloff and Mirela Iverac contributed reporting.

Victory for Parents and Kids in Stage One of Class Size Lawsuit! by Leonie Haimson - NYC Public School Parents

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We received a decision from Judge Barone of the NY Supreme Court this afternoon; the Court denied the city's attempt to dismiss the class size lawsuit. brought in January by the UFT, Class Size Matters, the NAACP, and other parents and community groups.

The city had claimed that only the State Education Commissioner could rule on whether they violated the law when it came to class size; inserted in the language of the law (at their insistence) was a clause that the “sole and exclusive remedy for any violation” would be a petition to commissioner, and “the decision of the commissioner on such petition shall be final and unreviewable.”

This language was the DOE’s sneaky attempt to ensure that they would never have to comply with the law, as they were convinced that the commissioner, then Richard Mills, would get them off the hook, as he had in so many cases before.

Yet the judge found the attempt to box out the court was likely unconstitutional, and that the legislature must have meant that the commissioner had the final right of review over the details of the class size plan, not the city’s compliance, especially as this entire matter flowed out of the court’s decision in CFE.

The city’s other main argument was that our petition should have gone to the Commissioner first in any case.

The judge agreed with our attorneys that this would cause unnecessary delay and would "irreparably damage the children who will during the course of these proceedings be relegated to learning in the overcrowded conditions which the legislature sought to alleviate.”

Yet another victory for NYC parents and their children's right to have a quality education, and another slap in the face of DOE’s outlaw mentality.

The Judge wrote they will see the attorneys in court on July 26 for a pre-hearing conference to start determining the facts of the case, i.e. whether the DOE has actually complied with its plan and reduced class size.

The facts on this issue are clear; they have not.

After Years of Complaints, Union Sues City Over Class Size Dollars by Maura Walz - GothamSchools

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UFT President Michael Mulgrew announces the union's lawsuit. Behind Mulgrew are, from left to right, Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, NAACP NY President Hazel Dukes, Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer and Yolanda Morales, a plaintiff in the suit.

The city teachers union, along with a coalition of parents and advocacy groups, sued the Department of Education this morning, charging it with not spending allocated state money on reducing class sizes.

Since 2007, the state has allocated nearly $761 million for class size reduction, yet class sizes in schools across the city have risen over the past two years.

The lawsuit accuses the DOE of causing the class size increase by willfully misusing those funds.

“As far as we are concerned, this is deliberate,” UFT President Michael Mulgrew said in a press conference at union headquarters this morning.

“New York City how has the highest class sizes in New York State,” Mulgrew said. “$760 million, for what?”

The lawsuit, filed this morning in the State Supreme Court in the Bronx, was brought by a coalition of parents, activist groups, the UFT, the New York chapter of the NAACP and the Hispanic Federation.

“The charges are without merit,” DOE Press Secretary David Cantor said.

Class size is one of six areas the state money is supposed to target as part of a legal agreement known as the Contracts for Excellence. The state has allocated the targeted funding since 2007 as part of a settlement of a lawsuit brought by the Campaign for Fiscal Equity (CFE), which charged that the state was underfunding city schools.

(The UFT was not a plaintiff in the original CFE suit, although the union did file a brief in support of the plaintiffs and then-union president Randi Weingarten testified in the case.)

City officials and their critics have been arguing over how to explain rising class sizes in the city for several years. DOE officials have repeatedly said state class size reduction funds have been included in principals’ budgets, but the city’s wider budget cuts have caused principals to reduce teaching staff anyway.

Nevertheless, city officials argue the state funds have prevented class sizes from growing even more.

At the press conference today, Mulgrew disputed that argument, saying a pattern of class size increases began before the fiscal crisis that led to widespread budget reductions.

The city first reported an increase in class sizes last school year, when class sizes in all grades grew by fractions of a point, with the largest increases happening in early grades. This school year, the jump in class size across all grades was substantially bigger.

DOE officials sent out a table today highlighting that average class sizes in all grades except kindergarten have decreased since the 2001-02 school year, the year before Mayor Michael Bloomberg assumed control over the school system.

But critics say those numbers mask larger class size increases in many high needs schools. Even before the city’s average class sizes began to rise, a state report showed that more than half of city schools reported increases in either their class size or student-teacher ratios.

Mulgrew also criticized the DOE’s defense that principals have discretion to spend funds on Contracts for Excellence programs other than class size reduction, saying it is Chancellor Joel Klein’s responsibility to ensure the money is spent on this issue.

“You cannot pass the buck,” he said.

Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, who joined the lawsuit’s plaintiffs at the press conference today, said the DOE’s approach to allocating state funds to schools without monitoring how they are used was unacceptable.

“It sounds like a ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy,” he said.

A DOE official said that schools with high class sizes are actively instructed to use the state funds on class size reduction, and once a principal commits in their budget to using the funds to hire new teachers, the DOE’s budget system won’t allow them to divert the funds elsewhere.

Plaintiffs said the suit is a last resort after years of lobbying the DOE to properly dedicate the money. Leonie Haimson, executive director of Class Size Matters, one of the plaintiffs, has called on the state to withhold Contracts for Excellence funds until the city commits specifically to reducing class sizes.

Class Size Makes Biggest Jump of Bloomberg Tenure by Jennifer Medina - NYTimes.com

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Class sizes rose at nearly every grade level across the city last year, according to a report released by the city’s Education Department on Tuesday, the largest increases since Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg took over the school system in 2002.

School officials called the increase “unfortunate” but blamed it on the economy and said class size was largely in the hands of principals.

“Class size is related to the number of teachers schools employ,” said the report, which was sent to the City Council on Tuesday. “The combination of budget cuts and increases in teacher salaries means that principals, while they have continued to hire staff, have been cautious about hiring.”

The largest growth was in the third grade, where the average moved to 21.8 students per class, compared with 20.9 students last year. The city does not calculate an overall average because class sizes vary so much according to age; every increase was a gain of less than a single student. Class size increased even though enrollment in the city’s public schools decreased by nearly 4,000, to 1,019,525, because the number of classes also declined.

Critics of the department said the increases showed that the mayor and Chancellor Joel I. Klein have ignored efforts by the state and the City Council to reduce class size.

“Class-size reduction money has been in place for a long time, and they have done nothing with it,” said Councilman Robert Jackson, the chairman of the Education Committee. “They get an F. They don’t even get an A for trying, because getting an A for trying would mean all of what they had been doing would be geared toward getting the size down, which it has not.”

Mr. Jackson urged the state’s Education Department to take action against the city, including withholding money from its annual budget. Nearly $150 million in state money, part of an infusion that resulted from a longstanding lawsuit over school financing, was earmarked last year for reducing class size, either through creating new classrooms or hiring more staff members to co-teach in a single classroom.

Garth Harries, who oversees class size for the city’s Education Department, said that in an operating budget of nearly $17 billion, that was “at best marginal funds.”

“They are important obviously, but this is a truly massive system and what we put out today are aggregate numbers for that entire system,” Mr. Harries said. “Schools are all working to protect their priorities both in cuts they have already experienced and cuts that they anticipate.”

Mr. Harries emphasized that the increases were not startling, and that in most grades, the current average is below what it was in the 2002-3 school year, when Mr. Bloomberg and Mr. Klein took control of the system.

But many students still attend classes that are more crowded than the city’s stated goals of 20 students per class in kindergarten through third grades (there are no targets for older grades). Roughly 45 percent of kindergarten students, for example, are in classes of 22 to 25, and more than 4,000 of the city’s roughly 61,000 first-graders are in classes with at least 28 students, according to Education Department figures.

The largest average class size, 26.9 students, is in the eighth grade.

Mr. Harries said it would take more time to know whether schools that now receive extra money from the state were able to reduce the number of students in their classrooms.

The report also warned that classes might soon get even bigger, as the department adjusts its five-year class-size reduction plan required by the state to “reflect the worsening economic climate.”

“The school system in the city is fighting to keep our heads at level, so that means that we will have to go back and have to reconsider the plan,” which was written in 2007, Mr. Harries said in an interview.

Randi Weingarten, the president of the teachers’ union, who has long pushed for smaller classes, called the rise “disheartening and inexcusable.”

“The state will not continue sending the city money for class-size reduction if the city continues to defy the terms and intent of the 14-year-old Campaign for Fiscal Equity court case,” she said in a statement. “It’s time for the city to quit making excuses and comply with the law.”

Politicians Duke it Out Over Education Funding by John Lauinger - NY Daily News

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It's the high-stakes prizefight that could determine which party controls the state Senate.

But state Sen. Serphin Maltese and City Councilman Joseph Addabbo pulled their punches in their first debate last week.

The campaign encounter on Tuesday was cordial by design because the sponsor, the Howard Beach Civic Forum, set down rules preventing Addabbo and Maltese from even mentioning one another by name.

Despite the polite match, the two could not have been farther apart on one of the evening's main issues - state education dollars for New York City.

Maltese, a veteran Republican defending his seat, went first.

"The state of New York is often accused of not getting enough money back to the city," Maltese said, attempting to debunk a charge often made by city lawmakers. "In the last 10 years, we have increased the [education] funding for the city of New York by 97%."

Though Addabbo couldn't address Maltese by name, he was clearly in accusation mode.

"Sure, New York City may have increased its funding for schools in the state budget," said Addabbo, who is facing term limits next year.

"But when we increase only 8% and Nassau and Suffolk counties increase more than 30%, the funding formula is still unfair," he said.

The candidates were referring to the Campaign for Fiscal Equity lawsuit, a drawn-out battle in which the state was forced to deliver $300 million to the city Education Department to make up for statewide funding inequities.

The debate came on the same day that Mayor Bloomberg announced a $185 million cut from the Education Department's budget this year, along with $395 million next year.

Addabbo said the current financial crisis warrants that "education first" should be the "rallying cry" in the state Senate.

"We need to control the $300 million," he said, referring to the court award. "But right now we have no idea where that is."

Maltese was quick to tout his seat on the education committee and his ability to land grants for the 15th Senate District.

He noted the GOP majority secured $646 million more education dollars than initially included in this fiscal year's budget.

Last fiscal year, he said, they got $616 million more.

"We try to get every nickel that we can," he said, arguing that city students "certainly get their fair share."

When asked about mayoral control of city public schools, Addabbo said he is planning a round of town hall meetings to gauge interest. He did not, however, give a position.

Maltese said that though he supported mayoral control at first, the system needs to be reformed to increase "community and parental input."

jlauinger@nydailynews.com

KEEP the PROMISE! Speak Out Against NYC Budget Cuts to Public Schools!

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This is the time to Speak Out, have your voice heard on behalf of our children, the future generation of our City and our Country..!

Addabbo Objects To Education Budget Cuts - Queens Chronicle

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City Councilman Joseph Addabbo Jr., (D-Howard Beach) announced that he has co-sponsored a resolution in the council calling on Mayor Michael Bloomberg to restore the proposed and actual cuts to the Department of Education budget, including the $324 million announced in January and any additional 3 percent cuts (estimated to exceed $200 million) announced in March. Schools in the area were already instructed to make mid-year budget cuts totaling over $180 million citywide.

“We must do what we can to restore the prior educational budget cuts and look to prevent future cuts to our children’s education,” Addabbo said. “Already this year the Administration has slashed school funding by approximately $180 million. Too much of the financial burden has fallen on the schools themselves and not the central budget of the Department of Education. Due to this sudden loss of funding, our community schools are being forced to cut back on after school programming, tutoring, books and professional development opportunities. This trend simply cannot continue.”

While New York City had committed to increase its investment in the public schools by $2.2 billion over a four-year period, the mayor has instead reduced the Department of Education budget with mid-year cuts and another proposed $324 million in the budget reductions for the next fiscal year, totaling more that $500 million.

The $180 million in cuts during this current school year, $100 million of which was taken directly out of schools budgets, have inflicted an immediate and severe impact on schools throughout the city as principals had been depending on this funding for important discretionary school programs and supplies.

After a 14-year battle with the Campaign for Fiscal Equity, city and state leaders finally made financial commitments to adequately fund public education in New York, but those promises could be rapidly disappearing before the eyes of residents and students.

“Though New York City faces difficult financial times on the horizon, and all agencies are experiencing reductions, we must still establish spending priorities and remain committed to a quality education for out children, regardless of what the economy brings,” Addabbo said. “I believe that before shifting the budget cuts to the schools themselves, the Department of Education should examine its own spending priorities, including the exorbitant costs related to consultants, excessive testing and “no-bid” contracts. Though both New York City and State face difficult financial items we must fully establish spending priorities and remain committed to quality education for our children, regardless of what the economy brings. I look forward to working with my colleagues in the City Council and the Mayor’s administration toward fully restoring the educational cuts to budgets of our area schools.”

For information on educational budget cuts, call Councilman Addabbo’s office at (718) 738-1111.

Letter to the Editor - School Cuts Don’t Make The Grade - Queens Ledger

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Dear Editor;

Now that our children have returned to school from Spring Break, it is imperative that we turn our attention to working together diligently to stop the potentially devastating education budget cuts that lame-duck Mayor Michael Bloomberg has proposed in next years New York City budget.

Mayor Bloomberg has failed our children with his power grab for Mayoral control of the school system.

Parents and education advocates have been successful through lobbying, phone calls, letters and in unity with the "Keep the Promise" coalition to stop the funding cuts to education in the New York State budget and we must do the same in the New York City budget.

I strongly believe that we must keep the pressure on our City elected officials, especially the City Council, who must negotiate for the FULL restoration of education funding with the Mayor before they vote to approve the City budget by the mid-June deadline.

The worst case scenario is that up to 8% of their budgets will be cut, in addition to previously enacted cuts by our "education" Mayor.

Mayor Bloomberg has already cut education funding directly from our schools in the current 2007-08 fiscal year by 1.7% or $180 million and has proposed cutting an additional 8% or over $600 million in fiscal year 2008-09. This is a total cut of over three-quarters of a billion dollars in education funding

I feel that it is essential that we successfully lobby the City Council to reverse the Mayors cuts and restore all education funding for our children to successfully achieve their full career potentials.

Parent groups throughout the City are calling for a "Mobilization Week" (during the week of May 19 to May 23) to lobby elected officials. The Keep the Promise coalition is also planning additional advocacy activities to pressure the Mayor and City Council.

As one part of the “Mobilization Week,” all parent and advocacy groups (Parents Associations, President Councils, Teachers, etc) are asked to engage and lobby the members of the New York City Council who represent their respective school districts.

I would implore that all concerned parties participate in other activities, such as planned rallies and show their support by attending the overnight vigil at City Hall which is being organized to send a clear, strong message to Mayor Bloomberg and the City Council that funding cuts to education are totally unacceptable to the voters of this great City!

One budget cut I would propose is that the DOE reduce their over bloated press/public relations department (over 15 employees making over $150,000) which is used to spin the truth and convince the citizenry of New York City that the Mayor and the Chancellor are doing a great job when the all rational evidence points to a completely contrary view. The DOE public relations spin-meisters are only out numbered in City government by the Mayor’s Office itself.

The time for inaction and civility is over it’s important that all interested parties and individuals are fully engaged and that we make a concerted activity between now and when the City Council votes on the City budget in June so we can win restoration of the education budget for the future of our children and our City.

Sincerely,
David M. Quintana
Ozone Park

State Passes Budget Boosting Funding for City Schools by Zack Hoopes - Columbia Spectator

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Engineered and promoted by brand-new Governor David Paterson, CC ’77, and passed by the New York State Assembly on Wednesday, the 2008-2009 state budget includes a windfall $1.75 billion increase in state education funding.

New York City schools will now receive $534 million, a fact which has prompted education campaigners to press ahead and call on Mayor Bloomberg and city schools Chancellor Joel Klein—this year’s class day speaker—to change their budget proposal as well.

At the end of 2006, then-Governor Spitzer agreed to a four-year plan which would increase education funding by $5.5 billion, $2.35 billion of which would go to city schools, according to Geri Palast, executive director of the Campaign for Fiscal Equity. The CFE. led by then-lead plaintiff, current City Councilman Robert Jackson (D-West Harlem and Washington Heights), was involved in a 14-year legal battle over funds, won by the CFE and which resulted in the Contract for Excellence, an agreement between the city and state.

But Spitzer, citing a downturn in the economy and a need to streamline the state budget, proposed to cut ’08-’09 funding off of the agreed four-year schedule. Jackson said this year is different. “It [the contract] was in jeopardy, but the state [under Paterson] kept its promise,” he said.

Now that the state has held up its end of the bargain, Jackson said the heat is on for Bloomberg to increase education funding. “There’s no reason why Bloomberg, when he comes out with his executive budget about a month from now, cannot keep the promise,” Jackson said.

Billy Easton, executive director of the Alliance for Quality Education, an organization associated with the CFE, noted that “there has been a groundswell of demand across the city for the restoration of funding promised by the state. Now we need to take our momentum and focus our attentions on the mayor to put the money back in.”

One problem has been an ideological difference between the Mayor and Chancellor’s offices and the CFE camp. The former tend to reward high-performing schools with more money, while the latter promote putting money into lower-performing schools in hope of increasing quality. The 2006 contract “required that the majority of the money be spent on high-need kids in low-performing schools, and the city did not do that last year,” Palast said.

Transparency and accountability, particularly with the Chancellor’s office, are other parts of the contract. Jackson in particular has questioned Klein’s methods, saying that they indicate Klein is “just a point person for the mayor” and not committed to the schools. “If you’re not communicating what you’re doing, you’re not standing up for the children of New York City,” Jackson said.

In response to these criticisms, Klein told the New York Times: “I have no apology to make for my leadership. This city has added $4 billion; that is a product of the mayor’s leadership and my leadership.”

At the end of the day, the budget victory for the CFE seemed to be but one battle won in a long and weary war. When asked where she would be going from here, Palast replied, “Right now I’m going home and going to bed.”

zack.hoopes@columbiaspectator.com

State Restores All CFE Funds for NYC Schools! Joint statement by CFE and AQE...

Hallelujah...All my praise and sincere thanks on behalf of parents and students go to Governor Paterson and the NYS Assembly..!

April 9, 2008
For Info: Geri Palast 212-867-8460
For Immediate Release: Billy Easton 518-432-5315

Campaign for Fiscal Equity, Inc
110 William Street – Suite 2602, New York, NY 10038
Tel (212) 867-8455 Fax (212) 867-8460
www.cfequity.org

Alliance for Quality Education
94 Central Avenue, Albany, NY 12206
Tel (518) 432-5315 Fax (518) 432-9498
www.aqeny.org

CFE & AQE REACTION TO RECORD SCHOOL AID INCREASE: EQUITY AND ACCOUNTABILITY MAINTAINED ASSEMBLY AND GOVERNOR PROVIDE THE LEADERSHIP SENATE MAJORITY MAKES TAXPAYERS ADD OVER $100 MILLION IN POLITICALLY-DRIVEN “SHARES” FUNDING

The 2008-2009 education budget enacts a record $1.75 billion increase in funding for public education; the key issue delaying the education budget was not how much money would be spent but how it would be distributed across the state. $1.2 billion of the $1.75 billion is distributed through the foundation formula that was enacted last year to take the politics out of school aid and distribute basic classroom operating aid based upon student need. However, more than $100 million was added to this budget at the insistence of the State Senate Majority in order to accommodate the demands of the Long Island Senate delegation for so-called Long Island “shares”— a politically pre-determined division of aid based upon geography, not student need.

“The $1.75 billion school aid agreement shaped by Speaker Silver and Governor Paterson is historic because it keeps their promise to deliver the second of the four-year commitment to resolve the CFE lawsuit,” said Geri Palast, Executive Director, Campaign for Fiscal Equity. “It will ultimately provide a sound basic education to all public school students by driving the majority of funds through a formula based on need, subject to accountability through the Contract for Excellence with a strong public voice.”

“The record school aid increase is remarkable, but more important is that two thirds of the new funds are distributed fairly and equitably based upon student need thus maintaining the promise that was enacted into law last year,” said Billy Easton, Executive Director, Alliance for Quality Education. “Make no doubt about it, the State Assembly dug in their heels to deliver fairness and equity in education funding throughout the state and Governor Paterson stood with them. Meanwhile the state Senate Majority used all their chits to drive a boatload of money to politically well-healed downstate suburban districts. Sadly many upstate Senators barely lifted a finger to add additional foundation aid for their own districts.”

Today’s education budget represents year two of a four-year commitment to fundamentally transform the quality of education in New York State. Last year, after 14 years of lawsuits and public demand for educational opportunities for every child the state committed to a four year $5.5 billion increase in basic classroom operating aid, also called foundation aid, to be distributed fairly in order to promote educational equity. Only one year later the commitment to educate every child was threatened, first by Governor Spitzer’s budget that proposed to reduce this year’s promised increase by $350 million. Subsequently, the State Senate Majority budget also proposed to under fund the promised foundation aid increases for upstate districts and New York City while adding $140 million in new aid primarily targeted to Nassau and Suffolk Counties. Meanwhile the State Assembly budget proposed to restore $300 million in foundation aid for districts upstate and downstate while rejecting the extra aid to fund Long Island “shares.” The budget enacted today melds much of the approaches of the Assembly and Senate Majorities with the foundation aid promised for New York City being delivered by the Assembly and the Governor and the Senate Majority securing its priority of added aid for downstate suburban districts. However, the Senate Majority did not agree to the foundation aid increases for upstate communities proposed by the Assembly, opting instead to prioritize funding for downstate suburban districts.

The Assembly and the Governor preserved the Contracts for Excellence as the central accountability tool, made the contracts cumulative to retain the full investment within the accountability structure, and modified the contracts to create a multi-tiered approach that permits some flexibility to reflect varying needs of school districts. Programs designed to serve English Language Learners were added to the best practices menu within the Contracts for Excellence which already included: class size reduction, teacher and principal quality initiatives, additional instructional time for students, high school and middle school restructuring, and expansion of half-day kindergarten and pre-kindergarten programs to full-day.

“We will need to examine these changes to the Contract for Excellence; however, we are pleased that the Assembly and the Governor fended off efforts to dismantle the new accountability system. Parents and education advocates have shown that, working with our elected leaders, we can make sustained gains in providing the constitutional right to a sound basic education to every public school child forged through 15 years of litigation and legislative action,” said Geri D. Palast, of CFE.

“The Contract for Excellence was reaffirmed and even improved in some ways,” said Billy Easton, of AQE, “but school districts were lobbying to replace accountability with flexibility, hopefully, this year’s legislation did not go too far in the direction of flexibility. The proof will come when we see if school districts invest the money in best practices and improve student achievement.”

Letter to the Editor - Keeping Money For Our Kids - Queens Ledger

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Queens Chronicle - Protested Budget Cuts

March 23, 2008

Dear Editor,

Last Wednesday (March 19^th) I attended a rally at City Hall in the pouring rain to demand an end to Mayor Bloomberg's proposed cuts to the public school budgets.

I think it was telling that on the 5^th anniversary of the Iraq War that students, parents, teachers, administrators, city council members and concerned citizens were protesting budget cuts to our children's educations.

By most accounts this war is costing our country over $1 billion dollars a week and I have read that when all is said and done the US Treasury will be out between $1.5 to 2 trillion dollars. Thats not to mention the tragic loss of life to our brave military heroes, the NY Times having just reporting that the 4,000th death occurred over the Easter weekend and over 30,000 soldiers have been irreparably injured and maimed.

What does it say of us as a society when we can find the cash for a preemptive, illegal and immoral war based upon lies told by President George W. Bush and his Administration against a sovereign nation that posed absolutely no threat to America, but we cannot fully fund a sound basic education for our children..?

These cuts come at a time when equity seemed to be in sight for New York City's public school students - through the court-ordered increase in funding by the protracted 12 year litigation by the Campaign for Fiscal Equity (CFE) law suit against former Governor Pataki; which he endlessly fought to the detriment of NYC schools - that our Mayor and his Chancellor would slap the children and parents of the City in the face by proposing these draconian budget cuts.

I am pleased to report that most of the Queens members of the City Council were present at the rally. I was especially pleased to see my City Councilman, Joseph P. Addabbo Jr., was present and standing strong with the parents and students of his district. The Council members stated that they would not pass the Mayor's budget unless these funding cuts were reinstated into the Mayor's budget proposal. I applaud their statements and their resolve, now it's up to us to hold them to their words and their rhetoric.

Notably absence from the rally was Queens Councilman Peter Vallone, Jr - a possible Queens Borough President candidate in 2009. I suppose he felt that attending a rally on behalf of our children's educations amounted to additional homework for him which we all know he has repeatedly spoken out against – it was a major disappointment.

Another person absent from the rally was Chancellor Joel Klein. It would seem to me that he should be fighting the budget cuts tooth and nail, scrambling to secure every last dollar for our schools. I believe he should have been on the front lines and forcefully speaking out against these cuts.

But I imagine he knows that his salary will be the one budget line that doesn't get cut. We all have to tighten our belts in tough times, of course, except the Chancellor. Thats why I believe the Chancellor should not be beholden to the Mayor but to some outside democratic body, such as the City Council or a board overseen by the Public Advocate, empaneled by parents, educators and other major stakeholders.

The proposed mayoral budget does not take any money from the Chancellors public relations apparatus either. The media relation department at Tweed is second only to the City Hall press corps, with over 15 positions with salaries of over $150,000. Their primary function is to “spin” the public into believing that the Chancellor is doing a good job and to further Mayor Bloomberg's political agenda, enhance his national image and further his political clout paving the way for future political office.

Tell me how many times have you heard that Mayor Bloomberg is the Education Mayor? Now, tell me how many times you have heard that from a parent, an educator or any other major stakeholder for our children, probably none. I suspect you have been taken in by Tweed spin machine just as the Mayor and Chancellor have planned, with our tax dollars.

I feel that the top down bureaucracy at Tweed should be cut to the bare bones before any budget cuts are passed on to the school class rooms, but this is not what happens in the Bloom/Klein era of public education.

To summarize, the CFE lawsuit made a $7 Billion commitment to new school funding to be phased in over the next four years, along with strong accountability measures and a public review process to ensure the the money is well spent and is not wasted. NYC's share of the new funding was committed at $3.2 Billion from the State and $2.2 Billion from the City budget – which was agreed to by the Mayor and the City Council.

Now the Governor and the Mayor have proposed cutting funding from their commitments, passed into law to fairly fund our schools. The State has proposed a $193 Million cut to NYC schools. Our Education Mayor has already enacted $180 Million cut (school budgets were cut 1.7% across the City last month) and he has now proposed an additional cut of $324 million next year. The combined cuts to NYC education funding will be almost ¾ of a billion dollars (less than the cost of one week of the Iraq war).

I ask that you join me and the thousands of others who rallied at City Hall to demand a full restoration of educational funding by the State and the City. It is time for the Governor and the Mayor to obey the law, our children have waited long enough..!

Sincerely,

David M. Quintana
Ozone Park, NY
http://davidmquintana.blogspot.com

Keep the Promises Rally at City Hall to Protest Budget Cuts to New York City Public Schools - March 19, 2008...

Leonie Haimson - Executive Director Class Size Matters and Me before the Rally

Leonie Haimson - Executive Director Class Size Matters and Me before the Rally

The Rally Stage

The Jumbotron TV Next to the Stage

Alliance for Quality Education Director of Advocacy Jaime Estades

A View of the Crowd - Estimated to be Over 10,000

Me Being Interviewed by Elaine Rivera - WNYC-Radio Reporter

Class Size Matters - www.classsizematters.org

New York City Council Members at Rally

UFT President Randi Weingarten

UFT President Randi Weingarten

Chancellors Parents Advisory Council Chairman William McDonald and Me - at left Michael Hirsch Reporter New York Teacher

More crowd shots...

Cash Clash Over School Spending by Erin Einhorn - NY Daily News

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As city officials and schools advocates team to pressure Albany for more education dollars, they will also be fighting each other over how that money should be spent.

Advocates - including local pols and community groups in a newly formed coalition - say they want more of the state's funds to be targeted on the city's worst schools.

"There were years of court proceedings with lots of evidence showing there were very needy schools and very needy kids not getting what they need," said Geri Palast, who heads the Campaign for Fiscal Equity organization.

But Mayor Bloomberg and Schools Chancellor Joel Klein prefer a formula that drives dollars to what they say are underfunded schools, regardless of whether they're successful or failing.

"At a time when we're facing budget cuts in the city, I want the maximum degree of flexibility so that our schools are not hurt," Klein told a parents group last week.

A similar dispute played out last year after Gov. Spitzer announced his Contracts for Excellence program, which requires districts to spend some state dollars on class-size reduction or other efforts in struggling schools.

City and state education officials squabbled for months over how the city would spend its Contracts money and, according to an Education Department memo obtained by the Daily News, the city is determined to wrest more control this year.

"This is something we should be arguing heavily," the memo said.

NY Times: Chancellor Answers Critics on School Financing Data by Jennifer Medina...

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Seeking to placate critics who want details of how the city’s schools will use an influx of new state money, Chancellor Joel I. Klein released figures yesterday that showed District 27 in Queens as the big winner, receiving more than $14 million. Much of the money — $10 million — will go toward reducing class size.

New York City won increased educational aid this year, the result of a legal battle over school financing. Gov. Eliot Spitzer and legislators agreed to a plan that sent an additional $1.03 billion to schools, with about $700 million coming from the state and $300 million from the city.

A portion of the money — $258 million — must be used for set goals like reducing class sizes, improving teacher quality and increasing instructional time. The city, like other school systems statewide, must submit a plan to the state for approval. The legislation also requires that the districts spend the money “predominantly” on schools that show poor performance or have large clusters of low-income students.

The city this month said that it would use nearly half the funds to reduce class sizes. Detailed figures released by the city yesterday showed how much extra financing school districts and individual schools would receive, but still did not specify where class sizes would be cut. Critics say the distribution raises the question of whether schools that are relatively high-performing are getting too much of the money.

“There is certainly going to be a lot more back and forth, because this just is not going to fly,” Meryl Tisch, a member of the State Board of Regents, said of the city’s plan. “The point of this money is to drive it to those kids who need it the most.”

But Chancellor Klein has adamantly defended the plan, saying that nearly every school in New York City has a number of students in poverty or at risk of failure.

“You’ve got to look at this in the real world and in the big picture,” the chancellor said. “There are students with needs everywhere, and we have to give money to all students, not just some students.” He said that the money has been directed to schools with high poverty rates and that the “overwhelming majority” of the money would be spent there.

The plan is unlikely to quiet those who say that the city is not focusing the new funds on the city’s lowest-performing schools. Critics yesterday pointed out that District 2 on the Upper East Side, one of the highest performing districts in the city, is getting more than $6 million.

“We believe that the money was intended to serve the lowest-performing students in the neediest schools,” said Geri Palast, the executive director of the Campaign for Fiscal Equity, a group that sued the state for more money for New York City schools. “This just isn’t that, as far as we can tell.”

Other districts getting large influxes of new funds are District 9 in the Bronx, $8.6 million, and District 10 in the Bronx, nearly $9 million.

Even within districts, the distribution of funds varies widely. In District 27, in Queens, Public School 124 in Ozone Park will receive about $525,000. A few miles away, Public School 108 will receive more than $1.4 million in new state money, more than any other city school. But in both schools, more than two-thirds of the students perform at grade level and about 70 percent of the students are at the poverty level. While P.S. 108 will receive far more money, lower-grade classes there are already smaller than at neighboring P.S. 124. — an average of 21.8 students compared with 23.5.

The plan was submitted to Albany late Monday night after a week of public hearings. It will set the stage for negotiations with the State Education Department, which has until mid-August to approve the plan.

NY1: Critics Argue Against Klein's Class-Size Reduction Plan by Michael Meehan...

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July 20, 2007

Come September, city schools are supposed to get a huge cash infusion when the state makes good for shortchanging city schools for decades. But now, some advocates are worried the city's Department of Education will not spend the new money in the best way for school kids. NY1 Education reporter Michael Meenan filed the following report.

Creating smaller classes is supposed to be a big part of how the city spends hundreds of millions of dollars in increased state aid. It's a requirement mandated by Albany, and it can't come too soon says one high school student.

"If it's like 32 students, the class goes like out of control,” said student Jose Araujo. “It's too many students for the teacher."

School Chancellor Joel Klein agrees that students do better when classes are smaller. But he says he has already shrunk classes. He maintains there's now an average of 25 students to a teacher in city high schools and in the early grades it’s even lower.

Klein says he wants to target $141 million of the new state money for further class-size reduction, especially in middle schools where many classes are 30 kids or more per teacher.

But the teacher's union says classes need to be 20 kids per teacher and Klein's class-size reduction plan, based on school-by-school reviews, falls way too short.

"It was not supposed to be an amalgam of what principals wish lists were, school by school, and they put it together and give it to the state,” said United Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten.

Klein argues that principals know best.

"We've got some schools where they're going to put two teachers in a class of 30,” said Klein. “They may not have the room to break up the class into two of 15. That's class-size reduction, maybe not in the view of some who want 20 in every class, which is not a real-word view in our context."

To prove how serious it is about reducing class sizes, the DOE says it's going to send in a team of specialists to 72 schools in September to teach administrators how to reduce class sizes.

The DOE is letting the leaders at one Chinatown junior high, where there are 30 students per class, decide what to do. But the group that brought the lawsuit that forced the state to provide the cash infusion says Klein's approach risks losing a chance for real class-size reduction.

"We need to get to a greater level of specificity beyond saying there will be coaching and supportive services,” said Geri Palast of the Campaign for Fiscal Equity.

The state education commissioner has the final say on whether or not the DOE's class-size reduction plan meets their approval. A decision is expected in mid August.

-Michael Meenan

NY Sun: Klein's Spending Plan Meets Opposition - by Elizabeth Green...

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The city schools chancellor could face a showdown tonight as he sends Albany a final proposal for how the city will spend an influx of new state funds.

Chancellor Joel Klein is scheduled to speak at a meeting of the Panel for Educational Policy on the same day he turns in the proposal, which details the city's plans for the first batch of more than $5 billion won in a decade-long lawsuit battle that concluded last year.

Heeding a call for accountability from Governor Spitzer, state lawmakers demanded the funds be spent on five specific goals, which the city has to demonstrate it is targeting in a document known as a Contract for Excellence.

Parents, teachers, lawmakers, and some of the lawsuit's original plaintiffs decried the city's first draft of the contract at hearings across the city last week, arguing it does not meet state requirements. They pointed to a class-size reduction plan they characterized as meager and $17 million slated for a testing program.

The draft said the testing program will improve students' "time on task," one of the state regulations' five goals. Its class-size plan called for reductions of as much as 0.8 students a class next year, but it did not specify changes in school construction plans.

How can DoE reduce class size without creating more classrooms?' a City Council member who was also the Campaign for Fiscal Equity's original plaintiff, Robert Jackson, asked at a hearing.

Department of Education spokesmen would not say whether the final plan includes revisions. A member of the Panel for Educational Policy, Patrick Sullivan, said a senior department official told him Friday that the plan has been revised, but he said he has not seen any specifics.

Mr. Sullivan said he plans to condemn the plan tonight, as he did at a hearing last week. He complained that the panel, an oversight board that has voted on policies such as Mayor Bloomberg's push to end social promotion and the city's new school funding scheme, will have no say over the contracts.

A department spokesman, Andrew Jacob, said the panel gets no vote because state regulations do not specifically require one.

'They don't want a vote because it might be embarrassing,' Mr. Sullivan countered. 'But accountability needs to be a two-way street.'

The final plan is being sent today rather than yesterday, the original deadline, because it is a business day, Mr. Jacob said."

NY1: Governor's Education Point Man Meets With Parent Leaders by Michael Meehan..

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Governor Eliot Spitzer's point man on education met with some school parent leaders in the city Thursday. NY1 Education reporter Michael Meenan was there and heard the concerns parents want passed on to the governor.

Dr. Manuel Rivera is Governor Eliot Spitzer’s top adviser on education issues, named to the post right after Spitzer took office in January.

On Thursday the former chief of schools in Rochester, Boston and several other large cities came to town to meet with a citywide council of elected parent leaders to hear their concerns about this city's Department of Education.

"We need to have parent involvement in order to make this school system better. They might not think that, but that's the only way it’s going to be better because parents are the first teachers,” said parent leader Robert Reed.

But what was really on the minds of these parent leaders is how to spend a billion dollars in new aid, $700 million from the state, and $300 million from the city. The money is the first installment in what are being called "contracts for excellence” resulting from a court finding that the state has been under-funding city schools for decades.

"We just feel that the money came down and things just happened and the people that fought for it, really didn't participate in the reward and that's the part that is hurtful when our children are the consumers in the system and there's no accountability,” said parent leader Maria Daponte-Dougherty.

Of the billion dollars, the city DOE can spend three quarters any way it wants, without state approval. Rivera said that does not mean there should be no oversight.

"People want to know where that funding is going and to what extent is it going to the needs of the most needy students and is it in fact going to those programs and practices that yielding the best results?” said Rivera.

Rivera says when it comes to the spending, his boss the governor has one bottom line.

"These contracts for excellence are intended to get better results for children,” said Rivera.

Parents we spoke with said they thought they got a good hearing.

"I have that feeling that he's sincere and will take back our information to the governor,” said parent leader Muba Yarofulani.

It remains to be seen if Albany will take into account these concerns when deciding whether or not to approve the city's plan to spend this new state money.

– Michael Meenan

NY1: City Holds First Town Hall In Series On How To Spend Education Money by Michael Meehan...

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In September, city schools are going to get a lot more state money, after Albany agreed it's been shortchanging city schools for a long time, but agreement's in short supply when it comes to how the Department of Education should spend the new cash.

NY1 Education reporter Michael Meenan filed the following story.

Monday night in the Bronx was the first in a series of town hall meetings to get the public’s input on how the city should spend up to a billion new public education dollars – $700 million from the state and $300 million from the city.

"Smaller classes very important,” said public school parent Jennifer Fray. “I think, 30, 30-something kids in a classroom is ridiculous."

Class size reduction is at the heart of a political tug of war on how to spend this new billion dollars. The money is the result of a 14-year legal battle, called the Campaign for Fiscal Equity, or CFE, that forces the state to make up for decades shortchanging city schools.

"Ultimately, ultimately after teacher quality, lowering class size is the second most important factor in helping children,” said United Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten.

The state law, which allowed this new city school money, requires the DOE to come up with a five-year plan to reduce class sizes. Robert Jackson, who helped spearhead the original lawsuit, now chairs the City Council Education Committee. He says the DOE plan he was briefed on gives principals too much choice about whether or not to reduce class sizes at their schools.

"We're not saying, ‘do it all in one year.’ Five years is a long time in a child's education,” said Jackson.

But the Department of Education says it does have a good plan to spend the new money and class size reduction is at the heart of it.

In fact, one DOE official said high schools on average have 25 students per teacher.

"We're building buildings that will bring the class size down, working with schools with larger classes to lower class sizes,” said Garth Harries of the DOE.

The DOE says its first priority is getting competent teachers in classrooms before ordering smaller classes.

"We want to be sure we do this in a smart way, that's aligned with the priorities,” said Martine Guerrier of the DOE.