Teachers sue city
Rip 'misuse' of $760M meant to slash class size
Last Updated: 5:54 AM, January 6, 2010Posted: 4:09 AM, January 6, 2010
The city teachers union filed a lawsuit against the Department of Education yesterday, charging officials with misappropriating $760 million in state funds that were earmarked for class-size reduction over the past three school years.
The filing in Bronx Supreme Court says the city DOE's failure to ensure that principals were using the massive funding infusion as promised -- under a so-called "Contracts for Excellence" agreement with the state -- has sent class sizes soaring at an unprecedented rate.
"As far as we're concerned, this is deliberate, and one of the clearest examples of mismanagement we have ever seen in the history of this city," said United Federation of TeachersPresident Michael Mulgrew. "[Class size at] every grade level has gone up. Why are people not being held accountable for this?"
DOE officials said state and city budget cuts over the past two school years have impeded their efforts to reduce class size.
"The charges are without merit," said DOE spokesman David Cantor.
In a September 2008 monitoring report, state education officials said that the city had made some progress toward meeting its class-size targets in 2007-08 but that improvements were needed in the second year of the program.
They didn't release a similar monitoring report in 2009, and declined comment yesterday on the lawsuit.
According to city data, class sizes had been steadily dropping in most grades between kindergarten and eighth grade since at least 2004 before suddenly shooting up considerably over the past two school years.
For example, kindergarten classes went from an average of 20.6 kids in 2007-08 to 21.7 kids this year -- the highest level since 1999-2000, preliminary data shows.
Similarly, fourth-grade class sizes climbed from an average of 23.5 kids in 2007-08 to 24.4 students this year.