Comments on: Thompson says DOE spent class size reduction money elsewhere

By: sodeskune

sodeskune — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 10:01:11 +0000

I have two classes of 31 high needs students. Isn’t it a shame that I have to hope that 10 or 11 of them don’t show up so I can effectively teach the other 20? It’s too many kids. Cynics may believe I’m just a lazy teacher, but it’s too many kids.

By: Leonie Haimson

Leonie Haimson — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 12:18:09 +0000

The Early Grade class size reduction program is still listed on the DOE budget allocation pages for FY 2010 as an “externally restricted” program — with specific rules that are supposed to be followed — rules that according to this audit, were flagrantly violated. Moreover, as the audit points out, the city promised to the state to continue it, specifically stating as part of its Contracts for Excellence that “the Department continues to be committed to reducing class size in early grades via the Early Grade Class Size Reduction program.”

It is very interesting that now the DOE claims the program does not exist.

By: Michael M.

Michael M. — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 02:30:13 +0000

The state previously scolded the city for accepting Contract for Excellence money for a list of schools at which BOTH class size and student-teacher ratio went UP, not DOWN.

The defense then was that it would have been worse without the money. Perhaps. But that wasn’t what the city had promised ahead of time.

Now the DOE’s auditor general says it was money that the DOE could spend as it chose? In the words of the NY Post editorial page (though on a different topic — all schools getting A’s), it “beggars the imagination.”