Spring/Summer 1999 (v3#3)

Smaller Classes for NYC in Doubt

A key victory celebrated by education advocates, smaller classes in the early grades, may have been premature. Class size reduction was one of several new education programs adopted as a result of a budget deal in August 1997 between the Governor and Legislature. Governor Pataki, who was running for reelection at the time, desperately wanted to pass his STAR property tax relief program. However, this property tax relief program benefitted wealthy suburbs far more than cities where much of the population are renters. In order to win support for STAR from city legislators, the Governor agreed to pass an Assembly initiative called LADDER, which included smaller classes in grades K-3, Universal Pre-K for all 4-year olds in the state, expansion of full-day kindergartens and more money for textbooks and computers, among other things. Despite Governor Pataki’s claiming credit for this historic agreement, and praising the Pre-K and class size reduction programs in particular, his Executive Budget this year eliminated funding earmarked for these programs. Instead, he proposed replacing these critical funds, as well as the state aid devoted to minor maintenance, categorical reading, bilingual education and other programs, with a block grant of a much reduced amount, $200 million statewide with only $77 million slated for New York City rather than the $216 million that had been promised to the city. The State Senate has since passed its own budget resolution which, while it would restore funding for Pre-K, also eliminates state funds to reduce classes in grades K-3 to an average of 20 students. Only the Assembly is holding out for full restoration of funding for smaller class sizes and all the other LADDER programs.

Budget Deadlock
As we went to press, Albany was still deadlocked over the state budget. There were not even negotiations going on between the Senate and the Assembly as to what will happen to education funding for New York State, let alone what will happen to the funds for class size reduction. An added concern is that the state’s failure to live up to its promise to fund smaller classes may jeopardize more than $100 million in federal funding to New York State. Last year the federal government approved a one year allocation of $2 billion to reduce class sizes in grades 1 to 3. However, the federal legislation specifically prohibits supplanting, that is, using federal dollars to replace state funds already earmarked for class size reduction. EPP has learned that although all fifty states have applied for the federal grant, only one state, New York, is under scrutiny for possible supplanting.

Class Size Matters Campaign
But if Albany is paralyzed, EPP and the Class Size Matters Campaign have been more active than ever, redoubling efforts to ensure that the state funding goes ahead as originally planned. We sponsored three rallies urging the Governor to restore funding, including one on March 26, which attracted almost a hundred participants. The rally was held outside the Sheraton Hotel where the Governor was speaking at a breakfast sponsored by the New York City Partnership and Crain’s Business. Inside the hotel we distributed fact sheets to the business leaders who were attending, informing them of the unfair and unwise education cuts that the Governor has proposed, explaining the educational benefits of class size reduction, and pointing out that if the program was cancelled, it would hurt the future economic development of the state. The press was there in full, including cameras from NY1, Channel 4, and MSMBC, all of whom ran stories about our rally.

On April 20, Leonie Haimson, a New York City public school parent leading the Class Size Matters Campaign, went to Albany for a press conference of the Emergency Coalition to save Universal Pre-K and Class Size Reduction. She brought along Naomi Lesnewski, age 9, a fourth grader from PS 3 in Manhattan, who had been very eloquent at our rally about the importance of smaller classes and how the Governor was breaking his promise to children by going back on the pledge to fund the program. Naomi’s speech ended the press conference and was a big hit with the media who gathered there. While in Albany, they also stopped in to see a few legislators, who confirmed that there was little going on of a substantive nature about the budget in the capitol.

Together with members of the Emergency Coalition, they also dropped in on Jeff Lovell, Deputy Secretary to the Governor for Education. While Lovell appeared somewhat flexible on adding funds for pre-K, he was rigidly opposed to coming through with any state funds for class size reduction, insisting that the federal program passed last year was sufficient for this purpose, and that there was no possibility that the cancellation of the state program would jeopardize federal funds in any way. Several points were made in response. First, the federal legislation specifically forbids the use of federal funds to supplant state efforts to reduce class size, and the US Department of Education has not yet ruled on the issue of whether the federal funds would be forthcoming if the New York program were cancelled. Second, the federal funding is one year only, and its future is far from certain. Finally, only with both sources of funds assured, federal and state, will most of the children in New York City schools be afforded the chance to learn in smaller classes. Lovell appeared unmoved by these arguments.

Class Size Matters now has an active phone and e-mail campaign in progress, informing parents and other concerned citizens about the proposed cuts, and suggesting they call the Governor and Senate Majority Leader Bruno to ask them to restore full funding to the class size reduction and pre-K initiatives. (If you’d like to participate, please call Gov. Pataki at 518-474-8390 or 212-681-4580; Senator Bruno at 518-455-3191. People are also asked to call Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver at (212) 312-1400 or (518) 455-3791, to thank him for maintaining his commitment to smaller classes and to urge him to stand firm on this issue.)

Research Evidence Grows
Our determination to pursue the campaign for smaller classes for New York City schoolchildren has only been strengthened by the new findings released at the end of April from the Tennessee STAR class size reduction study, the gold standard in such research. Tracking the outcome of students who were in smaller classes in the early grades and who have now graduated from high school, the results are extremely positive: Students who were placed in smaller classes in grades K-3 were more likely to receive higher grades in high school, had significantly higher rates of graduation, and were now more likely to be attending college than those who remained in larger classes. They were also more apt to have taken honors English, advanced mathematics and foreign languages.

Though all students benefitted from smaller classes, those who were poor and from minority communities were helped the most. In particular, the difference between the percentage of black and white students taking college entrance exams was halved for those who started out in smaller classes, and those who take the exams are considered more likely to enroll in college, according to Alan Kreuger of Princeton, one of the STAR investigators.

Class Size Matters is still collecting and delivering petitions to the Governor and the leaders of the State legislature, and now have the signatures of thousands of parents, who want their children to have the same chance to succeed that students who were in smaller classes in Tennessee and many other states have had. The petitions not only call for the state funding for class size reduction to be restored, but for the funding to be expanded so that every child in grades K-3 in New York City schools will have the benefit of smaller classes. Until we have reached this goal, those of us who are deeply concerned with the education of New York City schoolchildren will not be satisfied. For more information on Class Size Matters, check out the website www.picket.com/class.