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As New York City faces a looming deadline to sharply reduce class sizes, officials are dangling a tantalizing carrot to nudge schools to come up with their own plans to achieve that goal: more money.
Though school budgets are largely based on student enrollment, the Education Department is promising new funding next year to campuses that submit concrete plans to shrink classes. How much is available and where it will come from, however, remains unclear, and principals across the city have mixed feelings about whether to submit applications for the funds by the Dec. 20 deadline.
Some school leaders say that applying for money to hire more teachers is a no-brainer. Others feel torn. Among their top concerns are whether they will be able to find quality teachers amid a hiring frenzy — and how long the money will last, according to interviews with five principals.
City officials have emphasized that the program is optional, giving schools leeway to come up with strategies that work for their campuses with input from parent leaders and staff. The Education Department hopes the voluntary program will help ensure that 60% of the city’s classrooms align with the new caps by September 2025, a requirement under state law. About 40% of classes are already in compliance, and all classrooms must meet the new caps by 2028.
Under the law, classes are generally limited to 20 to 25 students depending on the grade level, with performing arts and physical education classes allowed up to 40. That’s a sharp reduction from previous rules that generally capped classes at 30 to 34 students.
Teachers union President Michael Mulgrew, who lobbied for the class size law, supports the department’s effort to allow individual schools to craft class size reduction proposals, even as he has criticized the city for being slow to come up with a broader plan.
“We want to send a clear signal that this is money outside of your regular budget that will come directly to your school,” Mulgrew said in an interview, adding that the program “will entice a lot of principals.”
He emphasized that schools can submit plans that bring only some of their classrooms into compliance. The teachers union, principals union, and Education Department are each part of a committee that will decide which proposals receive funding.
But even as city officials promise the money “will recur” beyond next year, principals wonder whether it will eventually come out of their own budgets.
“You could say, ‘Give me $400,000′ and hire four teachers, and the next year they could say, ‘We can’t fund this anymore,’” said a high school principal who oversees a campus where more than half the classes don’t meet the new caps. By volunteering to shrink classes early on, the principal worries that the school may face pressure more quickly to shift funding to teacher hiring.
“Counselors, after-school programs, those types of things are all going to be on the chopping block in order for us to get anywhere near full compliance,” said the principal, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Still, the school is leaning toward applying. “There’s no such thing as a free lunch,” the principal said. “But I just can’t see not trying for it.”
Evan Schwartz, principal of Alfred E. Smith Career and Technical Education High School in the Bronx, said he plans to submit a proposal to hire four more teachers, as roughly a third of his classes are above the new caps.
“If you want me to hit those class sizes next year, there’s no way I’m going to be able to do that with the current budget,” he said.
Schwartz also noted that the money could help ease a different problem: He owes the Education Department about $180,000 because his school’s enrollment was lower than projected last year, and the city is forcing him to repay the balance. Officials are not applying that midyear adjustment policy to schools with lower-than-projected enrollment this school year, but that won’t help Schwartz, since the unexpected enrollment dip at his school occurred last year.
“That just seems extremely unfair,” he said. “Schools that had a registration loss this year got to keep their money.”
Hiring teachers may prove challenging
Although research generally suggests that smaller class sizes benefit students, some principals worry that the advantages might be undercut as they struggle to find quality educators.
“Hiring teachers gets harder and harder each year,” said one Brooklyn elementary school principal. “It’s not like you open a classroom and automatically have a great teacher.”
The principal, who spoke on condition of anonymity to avoid retribution, said the school hopes to open a new kindergarten class because some of the other kindergarten sections are just above the new caps. But filling that class may be challenging, a prospect that raises concerns about how the school will afford the extra teacher in the long run.
Plus, the principal is concerned that applying for the additional money will invite city officials to second guess the school’s funding priorities.
The lengthy application to apply for the new funding requires schools to spell out all of the avenues the school is using to shrink classes, such as using virtual learning, rejiggering teacher schedules, and shifting funding from other areas, according to a copy reviewed by Chalkbeat.
“I’m worried the DOE is going to start to micromanage and scrutinize the way money is being spent,” said the principal, who cited potential pressure to reduce spending on teacher training or supplies.
Education Department spokesperson Jenna Lyle stressed that schools are not required to cut any student services to be eligible for the class size funding and noted the goal is to meet each campus’ needs. Hundreds of schools have started the application process, she said.
“Over the past couple of years, we have heard time and again that this process will look different in different communities,” Lyle wrote in an email. “By allowing schools to tailor their plans based on their specific needs and interests, we’re aiming to create a sustainable model for continuous improvement.”
Advocates call for a broader plan
Some advocates say the city needs to quickly come up with a more systematic plan beyond allowing principals to voluntarily apply for money. More than 500 schools don’t have enough space in their building for smaller classes, officials have said, and new construction takes years.
The city has so far avoided pursuing more contentious strategies, such as capping enrollment at in-demand schools and sending students to campuses with empty seats. And officials have yet to spin up a process that will eventually grant waivers to schools that can’t immediately meet the new caps. They are continuing to hammer out the details with the teachers and principals unions, officials said.
Class Size Matters, an advocacy group that pushes to shrink classes, has circulated a petition calling on the city to quickly establish a plan for reaching full compliance with the class size caps, including capping enrollment at some schools and spinning up construction projects.
“The DOE should develop an actual multi-year class size plan, demonstrating how sufficient funding and space will be provided over the next three years to allow all NYC students to benefit from the smaller classes they need and deserve,” the petition states.
Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.
