CLASS SIZE SHOULDN'T DIVIDE

CLASS SIZE SHOULDN'T DIVIDE

A recent op-ed in the Daily News by the president of Columbia Teachers College urged that money from the Campaign for Fiscal Equity case be channeled toward reducing class size rather than to benefit the United Federation of Teachers.

What was mystifying about that call by Arthur Levine is that the UFT is among those pushing hardest to have class size reduced in the public schools, only to be meeting resistance from the Bloomberg administration.

The union is part of an effort to get a referendum to reduce class size on the November ballot that received a setback May 19 when a State Supreme Court Justice ruled that the issue was a mayoral prerogative. The Department of Education insists it is already moving to cut class sizes in elementary and middle schools.

But Teachers and other school employees report some classes are still bulging with, in some cases, more than 40 students. The UFT says that just 2 percent of the CFE funding is earmarked toward reducing class size, and wants the amount increased to 25 percent, or well over $3 billion.

It's easy to dismiss this push as padding the union's membership rolls and its dues income. The fact is, though, that the UFT arguably has a stronger self-interest that is shared by anyone who cares about city public school students: reducing class size makes a pronounced difference in how much learning occurs. Ask anyone who has taught in the public schools and they will tell you that smaller classes are more manageable when it comes to discipline and make it easier to devote individual attention to struggling students.

It's time that Schools Chancellor Joel Klein got over his determination to call every shot on education and worked collaboratively with the UFT on this issue.