Queens legislators cheered the United Federation of Teachers’ recent lawsuit that alleges the city Department of Education violated state lawthat required the agency to use funds from Albany to reduce class sizes.
The city DOE has said the lawsuit filed last week is “without merit.”
“I completely support the UFT’s lawsuit,” said state Assemblyman Rory Lancman (D-Fresh Meadows). “They’re completely right .%u2026 legislation was passed that requires New York City to spend money on lowering class size. However, [city Schools Chancellor] Joel Klein doesn’t believe that reducing class size is important.”
The suit, filed in State Supreme Court in the Bronx, charges the city DOE has not used more than $760 million in state aid from the 2007-08 and 2009-10 school years to decrease class size.
Alongside the UFT, the lawsuit was also brought by the NAACP, the Hispanic Federation, a coalition of parents and other activist groups.
“New York City promised in writing that it would use specific funds to reduce class size,” UFT President Michael Mulgrew said. “It then turned around and ignores its promise, saying that school principals who supposedly work for the DOE simply decided to spend the money on other things, among them to replace funds lost to city budget cuts. The result has been that class sizes have actually increased over 2007 in every grade.”
Lancman helped to sponsor legislation passed by state lawmakers in 2007 that mandated the city earmark about $760 million for class-size reduction, including hiring more teachers.
Instead, the lawsuit alleges the city has not met its class size goals as outlined in its five-year plan that aimed for elementary and middle school classes to have fewer than 20.3 students in the 2009-10 school year. According to the suit, the average fourth-grade class has 25 pupils while eighth-grade classes average around 25 students.
Education officials have said budget cuts from the state have caused class size to increase. In Queens, education officials said the number of students attending school in an over-enrolled building has dropped from 47 percent in the 2005-06 school year to 42 percent last year. That number is the fourth highest in the city, just behind Staten Island.
Manhattan has the fewest percentage, 22 percent, of students in over-enrolled buildings, followed by Brooklyn with 26 percent.
“The Department of Education and the mayor have made a big deal about the lower class size, but what have we done to lower class size?” City Councilman Mark Weprin (D-Hollis) asked. “The results are not what we hope to accomplish.”
Reach reporter Anna Gustafson by e-mail at agustafson@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-229-0300, Ext. 174.