Schools under pressure
Possible charter boost & class-size regs strain budgets
Budget pressure from mandated class-size limits, a possible charter school expansion and supporting an influx of migrant students could create t+he need for more funding to fend off cutbacks, city Schools Chancellor David Banks and state lawmakers said during a budget hearing in Albany Wednesday.
The recent demands on the local education budget come as federal stimulus dollars are slated to expire, losing another source of funds that officials hope to supplement.
“If you’re going to prioritize the budget for class size,” said First Deputy Chancellor Dan Weisberg in an interview with the Daily News, “that means you’re going to have to deprioritize the budget for other things, which could be after-school programming or arts programming or mental health services or a whole range of things that aren’t about opening new classrooms and hiring new teachers.”
“Those tradeoffs will be very difficult unless and until the state appropriates funding to allow us to comply with this,” he added.
The new class-size law caps kindergarten through third-grade classes at 20 students; fourththrough eighth-grade at 23 students, and high school at 25 students. A fifth of all classrooms will need to comply with the legislation this fall, with the remaining classrooms to be phased in over the following four years.
“The class-size mandate that you all have instituted, we’ll be fine over the next two years,” said Banks. “But with all candor, my deep concern is what happens in years 3 through 5. It’s an area of real challenge.”
Banks testified the average class size for the youngest age group this school year is 22.2 students:
“You may not be able to keep the art teacher perhaps that you wanted to keep because you’re going to have to hire the additional second-grade teacher, because you’re two students over the number,” he said.
A city analysis projected the system will need to hire 7,000 more teachers to comply with the law. Officials are also putting together a working group of parents, school leaders and others to weigh in on how the law is implemented.
“The working group is badly needed, but the planning needs to start ASAP,” said Leonie Haimson of the advocacy group Class Size Matters, which helped organize at least nine resolutions by education councils and community boards citywide calling for the task force.
“Cuts to school budgets and the capital plan and their proposed charter co-locations suggest that so far they have no realistic plans to meet the benchmarks in the law, especially in the outyears,” she added.
State Sen. John Liu, who championed the class-size bill, called Banks’ testimony “troubling.”
“I take great issue with you and the mayor saying that was an unfunded mandate, when in fact, the Foundation Aid calculations, which we’re now fully funding, were based in part on those classroom limitations,” said Liu. “If you need more stuff, tell us what you need. But we’re already giving you a billion dollars more each year.”
An internal working group of operating, finance and enrollment officials and others began planning for smaller class sizes when the bill was passed, Weisberg told the Daily News. They meet every couple of weeks to analyze data, the financial impact and legal requirements, he said.
Also in contention on Wednesday were two charter proposals to eliminate the city charter cap and revive so-called “zombie” charters, which according to city estimates could total nearly $1.3 billion each year.
But while state officials were keen to discuss Gov. Hochul’s plans announced last month, Banks deferred questions about his stance on the plan to when Mayor Adams testifies.
“The ultimate decision around whether or not you increase the cap or lift the cap is not my decision,” said Banks. “My focus is really on the young people that we’re working on in traditional public schools.”
Under the current cap, the public school system allocated nearly $3 billion to charter schools last year, officials testified. An additional $200 million was spent on charter school rent, and 146 charter schools were placed in Department of Education sites.
“I’m not even sure what the thinking is, given the student reduction in New York City,” said state Education Commissioner Betty Rosa. “We still have 12 charters that haven’t even opened.”
“We were not part of this conversation in terms of this decision at all,” she added.
City officials were also asked about growing financial pressure as its schools seek to properly support recent arrivals from the southern border, while federal stimulus dollars dry up.
An estimated 13,000 migrant students have enrolled in the public schools since the summer, officials testified. The city has allocated roughly $100 million to support asylum seekers, and expects to spend more as more school-age children arrive in the city.
Meanwhile, than a dozen critical education initiatives are vulnerable to cutbacks or elimination after federal stimulus runs out and the city hits a so-called fiscal cliff, from preschool programs to social workers, according to a brief from Advocates for Children released last month.
The city has been slowly weaning schools off the temporary funds, from roughly $3 billion last year to $2 billion this year and $1 billion next, an education finance official testified.
“There is a cliff coming that we’re going to have to work very hard with each of you to make sure we preserve those services,” said Weisberg. After a lawmaker asked if the city has found new buckets to support services like social workers, he replied: “We don’t have them identified now, Senator, no. We’d have to work on that.”