Are 5,485 classes this fall that violate the union contractual class sizes a cause to celebrate?
Update: I'm quoted in the Daily News, Chalkbeat, and Schoolbook.
Today, Michael Mulgrew, the President of the UFT, organized a press conference on the steps of Tweed about class size. He thanked the assorted legislators for bringing home more education funds for NYC schools in last year's state budget, and the Mayor and the Chancellor for seeing that much of it went to schools. He applauded the fact that there were fewer class size violations during the second week of school than last year, 5,485 compared to 6,447 the year before. Then he added that we needed to push to ensure that the full $2 billion extra that we are owed by the state as a result of the Campaign for Fiscal Equity decision in 2003 -- 12 years ago-- is finally provided to schools.
According to UFT data, more than 3,400 high school classes exceeded the 34 students permitted in the teachers contract, and in elementary and middle schools, more than 2,000 classes exceeded these cap with class size limits range from 25 in Kindergarten to 32-33 students. Which means that as many as 150,000 students or more than 10% of all students could have been disadvantaged by huge class sizes of more than 32.
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| Guillermo Linares, Donovan Richards, Nick Perry, Bill Perkins and me. |
NYC schools getting their fair share of funding were Assemblymembers Jeff Aubrey, Keith Wright, Guillermo Linares and Nick Perry; and Senators Velmanette Montgomery and Bill Perkins.
City Council Education chair Danny Dromm, and Council Members Alan Maisel, Julissa Ferreras, Mark Levine, Corey Johnson, and Donovan Richards also spoke about how NYC Public School Parents: Are 5,485 classes this fall that violate the union contractual class sizes a cause to celebrate?:
