Suit: Rein in the size of classes

ADVOCATES AND parents have filed a lawsuit calling on the state and city Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza to reduce class sizes in public schools.

The suit filed in Albany Supreme Court on Thursday was brought by advocates with Class Size Matters, the Alliance for Quality Education and nine parents from all five New York City boroughs.

It claims the state and city Department of Education have ignored a 2007 law called the Contract for Excellence that required the city to lower class sizes.

Class Size Matters founder Leonie Haimson said the city has instead increased class sizes, with nearly one-third of all students in classes of 30 or more children.

“It is unconscionable that the state and the city have flouted the law and are subjecting over 290,000 students to overcrowded classes of 30 students or more,” said Haimson, citing a Class Size Matters analysis of city Education Department data.

According to Haimson, a plan the city created in 2007 aimed to reduce the number of students in classrooms to 20 to 25, depending on the grade.

But city Education Department statistics show the current average class size across all grades is 26.1 students.

Studies have shown that smaller class sizes lead to better academic results for students. Efforts to reduce class sizes have enjoyed broad support from city educators.

The state Education Department declined to comment on the suit, citing a policy against speaking about active litigation.

City Education Department spokesman Michael Aciman said the city has invested $6.5 billion to create more than 46,600 classroom seats in overcrowded areas.

“As a result . . . average class size across the city has decreased from 26.4 students per class in the 2015-16 school year to 26.1 this year,” Aciman said.