Will Hire 1,300 Teachers
City Using State Aid To Cut Class Size

By MEREDITH KOLODNER

Union officials and community activists applauded the state's approval last week of the city's plan to spend $258 million in school funds, which included significant changes from its original proposal in July.

RICHARD IANNUZZI: 'Will help close learning gap.'

Almost 60 percent of the funding, about $153 million, will be spent to reduce class size, a shift from the less-than 50 percent originally earmarked. The approval, expected in August, was delayed after changes were demanded by the state to better fit Governor Spitzer's educational priorities. The plan will entail hiring 1,300 additional Teachers, and 75 low-performing schools were specifically targeted for reduced class size within five years.

UFT: Still Need a Cap

United Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten praised the plan and the city's willingness to make changes to its original proposal. She also urged the Department of Education to go further than striving for a lower average of students per class. "This plan is a good step," she said in a statement. "But it's just the beginning, not the end, because to make it real for all kids we need to have a cap, not an average."

GERI PALAST: A new era begins.

The union leader reiterated her call for a ceiling of 20 children in kindergarten through third grade classes and 23 students in the higher grades.

Last year's state budget mandated an additional $1.03 billion to city schools, about $700 million coming from the state. The legislation also required the city to receive state approval for how it would spend $258 million of the new funding. The city's total education budget was about $17 billion this year.

In addition to increasing the amount of money spent on class-size reduction, the city will spend about $45 million on schools it originally had not intended to receive additional aid. That move helped the city comply with the state's demand that most of the money be spent on the highest-needs schools. State officials also did not approve the use of $13 million for standardized tests.

No Plan, No Money

The city's plan was approved alongside 54 other school districts' statewide. This year's state budget included a massive infusion of education funding, a total of $19.6 billion, with more planned in the coming years. School districts that received a 10-percent, or a $15-million increase, in state funding and had at least one underperforming school were required to develop and submit plans for approval to the state to show how they would improve student performance. Class-size reduction was one of the central tenets of the approval process.

LEONIE HAIMSON: Not much to show for effort.

"The Governor's emphasis on reform, resources and results, which is at the heart of the Contracts for Excellence, is essential to closing the achievement gap," said New York State United Teachers President Richard C. Iannuzzi in a statement. "This historic collaboration ... emphasizes the concept of best practice for helping students at risk."

Other advocates also applauded the announcement. "[This] approval of the first Contracts for Excellence marks the beginning of a new era for school finance, accountability and transparency in New York State," said Geri D. Palast, the executive director of the Campaign for Fiscal Equity, which filed the lawsuit 13 years ago to force the state to distribute education funds more equally.

'Totally Inadequate'

One leading city advocate, however, was disappointed by the results. "New York City's class-size reduction proposal is totally inadequate compared to the critical need," said Leonie Haimson, the executive director of Class Size Matters. She noted that only 75 schools, about 5 percent of the total, were targeted by name to achieve lower class sizes and that even after five years they would be much higher than the state average. She asserted that Washington Irving and Boys and Girls High Schools would shrink to an average of 27.8 and 27 students respectively by 2012, well above the state average of about 20. She added that she was disappointed that the state approved the city's proposal, which she said was short on detail, after so many months of negotiations. "It's as though an elephant was in labor for three months and gave birth to a mouse," she said.

The state, which in the past has not been involved in monitoring most school districts' educational plans, will keep track of each locality's progress. The city and the other 54 districts will need to submit annual reports on progress and any proposed changes to their plans.