DOE: Lowering class size by 10% would cost “tens of billions”

Dollars and Cents

March 13, 2009

DOE: Lowering class size by 10% would cost “tens of billions”

by Philissa Cramer, at 2:37 pm

Lowering class size by just a fraction of the degree sought by class-size reduction advocates would require a tremendous expansion of the Department of Education’s budget, Deputy Chancellor Christopher Cerf just testified at today’s Assembly hearing on mayoral control in the Bronx.

Recent DOE analysis concluded that a reduction in class of 10% — from an average of 25 to 22.5, for example — would cost $800 million a year in extra operating funds to pay for new teachers, Cerf said. Constructing the extra classrooms needed would be an additional tens of billions of dollars in capital funds, he said.

The city last year received $150 million from the state in funds earmarked to reduce average class sizes in a set of needy schools.

http://www.classsizematters.org leonie haimson

I have no idea where Cerf gets his figures. You should ask him. I believe this is grossly inflated.
http://www.classsizematters.org leonie haimson

In addition, in the capital plan, they claim to be able to meet the class size targets w/out spending an extra cent. You should check it out. I wont provide the link because that prevents me from posting this.
Michael M., P.E.

I too want to see DOE’s numbers.
In the meantime, let’s have some fun with math.
Pardon the compressed format: Say 1M kids. 10% is 100k more seats, and at 25 kids per class, 4k more teachers. Seats cost roughly $80k each (per roughly backed-out Cap Plan numbers). That’s $8B for seats. (vs “tens” per Cerf. He’s about 2.5x high — then again we can FINANCE capital work.) Say we borrow at 6% for 30 yrs, mortgage style. Works out to about 8 cents per year on the present value dollar, or $533M/yr for 30 yrs. At $50k/yr, that’s $200M in teacher pay. Say double, or $400M with benis and overhead. (vs $800M per Cerf. He’s about 2x high.)

So now I’m at $933M/yr. Say $1B per year. Or 6% of Mike Bloomberg’s net worth. Or $125.00 per year per New Yorker, or ONE parking ticket.

Such a deal.

Sharpen your pencils if you like, my “point” remains the same. Such a deal.

“Cerf’s up,” as they say.
Michael M., P.E.

Re “The city last year received $150 million from the state in funds earmarked to reduce average class sizes in a set of needy schools.”

The state noted in a report released September 2008 that the city took over $7M — over $100k at 70 schools — for class size reduction, yet class size and teacher-student ratio BOTH went UP at those 70. Sheesh.

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Dollars and Cents

March 13, 2009

DOE: Lowering class size by 10% would cost “tens of billions”

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