New York State Education Department Commissioner Betty Rosa waded into the class size wars Thursday to warn that capping class sizes across the schools could lead to unwanted tradeoffs for the city’s neediest kids.
Rosa’s concerns echoed those previously raised by Mayor Adams and Schools Chancellor David Banks, who say a recent state law to shrink class sizes will lead to cuts in other education programs, while funneling money to crowded, high-demand schools where families are less likely to need the support.
The new class size law caps kindergarten through third-grade classes at 20 students; fourth- through 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 equality of class size, that’s a problem,” Rosa told hundreds of teachers, education officials, and city and state lawmakers at the City & State education summit — including State Sen. John Liu, the bill’s sponsor.
“If you are now standardizing it, then the children who are in the situation that they need the most resources, the resources don’t expand. So you’re gonna have to take it from Peter to give it to Paul,” she said.
Rosa’s public remarks — among her first on the topic since class size caps were signed into law last year — came after a series of studies that probed who the legislation would benefit, including a Chalkbeat analysis released Thursday morning.
Roughly 38% of schools with the highest poverty rates stand to benefit from the new limits, according to the report. At low and mid-poverty schools, 69% of class sizes were above the caps last school year.
Rosa pointed to a “big distinction” between equity and equality, and that the two concepts “very, very, very rarely” mean the same thing.
“So I would suggest that a lot of our thinking, our designs, in terms of equity, have to be… driven by needs, not driven by trying to give everybody the same thing,” she said.
Plans to decrease class sizes are broadly popular among families and teachers, who point to their ability to help students learn, personalize instruction and boost engagement when fewer kids are in the classroom.
“There are so many things that are of the moment,” said UFT Assistant Director Michael Sill. “Lowering class size was something that was important 20 years ago, it’s certainly important now, and important 20 years from now.”
While higher poverty schools are more likely to have fewer class sizes above the new limits, researchers at the Independent Budget Office also pointed out that measures to shrink classrooms at any school is likely to have an impact on students in poverty given their high share across all city schools.
More than 7 in 10 local public school students were living in poverty during the 2021-22 school year, the report showed.
An analysis from the Department of Education last spring found nearly six in 10 classes in the schools with the highest economic need already comply with the law, city data showed.
Liu, who leads the state senate’s New York City education committee, clapped back that lowering class size is not a program, but a decades-old court order that the state — after years of delay — is now fully providing the funds for compliance.
“My bill that requires the reduction of class sizes in New York City should never have been necessary because it was already in the works,” said Liu. “But it became necessary because the City of New York decided that it did not have a responsibility to reduce class sizes.”
The city received $756 million in state funding for class size reduction and other priorities this school year, according to the Independent Budget Office. Meanwhile, the law could cost anywhere from $1.3 billion to $1.9 billion annually after a phase-in period, according to projections from city officials and budget watchdogs.
“To say that we’re going to continue to defer our [state] constitutional responsibility of a sound, basic education by not having excessively large class sizes, that is absolutely unacceptable. We will not stand for it, and it will risk your [state education aid],” Liu said.
