A Class Size Law?

Or just another DOE ruse?

Here’s a petition asking the DOE to not only talk about lowering class sizes, but to actually do it. Please sign and share. I’m sure you’ve heard of the class size law in NYC, and if you don’t study it too closely, you might think we’ve finally solved the problem. Alas, that’s far from the case. This law has more holes in it than Swiss Cheese.

It’s been about 60 years since class size was enshrined into the UFT Contract. To the best of my knowledge, that’s the only instrument that has restricted city class sizes at all. I don’t know how many times I traveled to the American Arbitration Association to protest class sizes at Francis Lewis High School, but it was a regular event for me as chapter leader (CL).

There’s been a lot of talk about lowering class size over these 60 years. There was the Contract for Excellence (C4E), passed way back in 2007. The city got billions of dollars and was going to reduce class sizes. K-3 would have no more than 20. 4-8 would have 22.9. And 9-12 would have 24.5. Of course I worried about all those fractional children and the struggles they’d face. You know how kids can be. Would my students make fun of the .5 boy in the third row? I need not have bothered.

From then, right up until now, the city simply disregarded C4E, and chapter leaders continue to monitor and grieve class sizes. Since C4E, class sizes went nowhere but up. And despite whatever C4E may have said, CLs can only enforce the class sizes mentioned in UFT contracts. For all the good intentions of C4E, it may as well not exist.

Now, we hear all about this new law that will finally reduce class sizes. No, this time they really mean it. I know they said the same thing last time, but this is the real thing. Not like that last thing you thought was the real thing. This time, for sure.

Of course you see the credibility factor somewhat lacking. This year, principals with space for reducing class size have to ask the DOE for money to support its reduction. This is problematic on multiple levels.

First, there are some awfully nasty people over at the DOE, many left over from the Bloomberg regime. I spent a year testing English Language Learners, a job I took simply because, as chapter leader, I wanted an office. Whenever I’d call DOE for help, all I got was threats that if I didn’t fix whatever it was, there would be dire consequences! I quit after a year. No one needs an office that badly.

I don’t know whether or not you recall the DOE asking principals to report every infraction to central, so they could really help out, but I do. As I recall, the DOE version of support was to close schools they labeled as persistently dangerous. How many principals are going to be comfortable asking DOE for help?

If that were not an issue, or if school leaders choose to ignore it, there’s a secondary concern—a lot of schools simply have not got the space to accommodate lower class sizes. I work in one. Even though we now have a new annex, we’re bursting at the seams. I’m certain we’re not unique at all. In fact, more than half of DOE schools have not got enough space to make lower classes a reality.

While DOE officials pay valuable lip service to their good intentions, they are not out there creating anywhere near the space we need to accommodate our students. From the petition:

The DOE also cut school construction funding by $2.5B after the class size law was passed. Although much of that funding was recently restored due to the state legislature’s insistence, a declining number of schools are slated to be built over the next three years, and over 70% of school seats are still undetermined as to district, subdistrict, or grade level.

That doesn’t sound promising. Furthermore, in their infinite wisdom, the DOE wants permanent exemptions for overcrowded schools. That means if your kid is stuck in some pressure cooker sardine can of an overstuffed building, she’d better just get used to it. If she stays in that hometown when she grows up, her kids had better get used to it as well.

Here’s a madcap notion—sometimes you read about DOE closing schools because there aren’t enough students. Now just bear with me for a moment here, but wouldn’t it be a better idea to, you know, send more kids to schools where there is space, and fewer kids to schools where there is not space?

It’s absurd that we allow the DOE to get away with this nonsense. Year after year, they mandate we follow this or that educational program, which is perfect. Year after year, they tell us last year’s program was crap and we must follow this new program, which is even more perfect. Not only can I not tell you of some magical program that will fix everything, I don’t even believe one exists. I’m afraid I’ll never be smart enough to work at Tweed.

I can tell you, though, having taught classes of all sizes, that a class of 25 is a whole lot different from one of 34 or more. Kids need attention, some more than others, and if you can’t give them what they need, your class will suffer as they cry out for it, insistently, repeatedly, and everlastingly. Students simply trying to learn will suffer, and so will you. I’ve learned to control bigger classes, but I can help a lot more kids if you give me the time to do so.

When you get caught breaking some rule in school, you get called into the principal’s office. You get a letter to file that says if you keep doing this stuff, you can face further action, up to and including termination. When the DOE, the same one that claims to put, “Children First, Always,” decides to break a rule, they just move to change the rule so they can continue doing whatever.

Whatever is not what children need.

Let’s hold the DOE to at least the same standards they apply to us. Please sign the petition and share it with your friends and neighbors.

Lower class size is just one aspect of A Better Contract. Unity has neglected it for well over half a century. Let’s elect leadership that focuses on working conditions in schools (as opposed to who’s catering tomorrow’s gala luncheon at 52 Broadway).