GothamSchools — daily independent reporting on NYC public schools

annual appeal

September 22, 2011

UFT: Budget cuts lead to more oversized classes this year

by Philissa Cramer, at 1:48 pm

John Elfrank-Dana, UFT chapter leader at Murry Bergtraum High School, says his history classes have as many as 37 students.

After three years of budget cuts, the city’s schools started the year with more oversize classes than at any time in the last decade, according to data collected by the United Federation of Teachers.

Union members reported that on the sixth day of the school year, nearly 7,000 classes had more students than the teachers contract allows, mostly in high schools and a large number in Queens. That was almost a thousand more oversize classes than they reported at the same time last year.

The union will soon file a grievance against the contract violations, and many of the classes will shrink as schools shuffle students around in the coming weeks, as typically happens at the beginning of the school year. But union officials said it appears that for the fifth year in a row, average class sizes have inched up again.

“Our worst fears have now been confirmed,” said UFT President Michael Mulgrew at a press conference announcing the numbers today. He urged Mayor Bloomberg to protect the city schools from additional budget cuts in the coming year.

Now, nearly a quarter of all city students are spending all or part of the day in overcrowded classes, according to the UFT. The contract limits classes to 25 students in kindergarten; 32 students in elementary school; 33 students in middle schools and 30 students in middle schools with many poor students; and 34 students in high schools.

“We are still finalizing our class size reports, but we do expect class sizes to rise modestly as a consequence of nearly $1.7 billion in state and federal budget cuts that have forced us to more with less,” said Frank Thomas, a Department of Education spokesman, in a statement. “But we believe that getting effective teachers into every classroom is the most important stepping stone to student success, and we will continue to work toward that goal.”

“Our best teachers cannot do their best in classes of 25 or 30 or more,” said Leonie Haimson of Class Size Matters, who appeared with Mulgrew at the press conference. She said the increase in class size appears to be sharpest in kindergarten through third grade.

Many principals cut teaching positions at the end of last year, leading to a situation that has union officials scratching their heads: ”We have buildings that have oversized classes and open classrooms,” said Myra Cruz, the UFT’s district leader in District 6 in Upper Manhattan.

At Murry Bergtraum High School in Manhattan, where the press conference was held, some classes have as many as 41 students and lunch periods start as early as 10 a.m. and as late as 3 p.m., Mulgrew said.

What’s worse, according to John Elfrank-Dana, Murry Bergtraum’s UFT chapter leader, is that the school is getting more poor and low-performing students than ever, and they need more individual attention.

“The more socially needy the students are, the smaller you need the class to be,” he said. And at a time when teachers are being pushed to improve their practice, he said, “It doesn’t seem to fair to pull the rug out from under us” with even more students.

Print Print
  • Larry Littlefield

    I’ll say it again only because just about everyone wants to ignore it:  spending on the NYC schools went up by more than $1 billion this year.  It also went up a lot the previous few years.  It is now high per student compared with the U.S. average, even adjusted for the cost of living, whereas it used to be low.

    It’s just that more and more money is going to the retired in the wake of the 1995, 2000 and 2008 retroactive pension enhancements (and any others I might have missed).   The UFT was in favor of this, and I was opposed, but that’s the irrevocable past.  This is just getting started and is going to go on for years.

    “And at a time when teachers are being pushed to improve their practice, he said, ‘It doesn’t seem to fair to pull the rug out from under us’ with even more students.”

    Oh don’t worry, that will all go away soon.  Not the more students, the push to improve education, or even keep it from getting worse.  The next Mayor would be nuts to say “hold me accountable for the schools” or even talk about them.

    Note that Governor Cuomo said nothing about the debt-doomed MTA when he campaigned, and has done nothing about it since being elected?  That’s the schools in and after 2013.

  • Larry Littlefield

    Moreover, as a double dip recession perhaps comes on, can you imagine what would happen if — in the face of rising debt and retirement costs sucking money out of the classroom — the amount of money spent on education in NYC ACTUALLY went DOWN?

    It is only because other public services have been cut proportionately more, and NYC’s tax base has done relatively well, that things aren’t worse this year, as I expected them to be.  What has gone on so far is not a disaster — yet.

  • Anonymous

    Making things worse at Bergtraum is that they took many teachers out of the classroom to become “master teachers” to comply with the SIG/transformation or turnaround program; further raising class sizes.  What a travesty!

  • il flerpolo

    Lower NYC spending would be armegeddon for the DOE, but we don’t even need spending cuts to force more services cuts.  If spending next year stays level with this year, the pension/benefits/debt service costs will probably be at least half a billion dollars higher.  So with a static total budget, that’s a half-billion dollar reduction in spending on teachers and students.  I’m probably underestimating the numbers.  

  • guest

    How about all the the non teaching administrators in schools?  They get paid much more than teachers and they do NOTHING.

    How about all the consultants?

    How about the fact the DOE workforce at Tweed has grown.  They are not union, they actually get pay raises and they often get paid more than teachers (and, they do nothing).  They have pensions.

    Stop talking about teachers’ pensions and go write about city counsel member’s pensions.  

  • http://nyceducator.com/ NYC Educator

    NYC has lost 8,000 teachers to attrition over the last three years. It’s odd that Mayor Bloomberg, so indispensable he needed to thwart the twice-voiced will of the people to buy a third term, did not anticipate we’d have larger classes with fewer teachers. It seems like one of those math things that a financial genius such as the mayor would anticipate.

    Oh well. His kids, Klein’s kids, Obama’s kids in classes of 15 or fewer. Ours in 34, the highest in the state, and up.

    Keep it going, New York!

  • Ellen

    I am not a teacher, but here goes
    Teachers lent the City money in both recessions
    the Mayor and his folks negotiated the contracts
    everyone, including the national folks, agree that teachers aren’t paid what they are worth

    If there has been a lack of leadership or poor of planning by NYC government, why isn’t the Mayor taking the initative and saying “This is my doing” Bloomberg has been Mayor for 10 years.  Bloomberg’s folks negotiated the raises.  Why are we ignoring that fact?

    And besides, they still aren’t getting what they are worth….in money or in respect

  • il flerpolo

    The math is what it is.  You can fire every consultant and it won’t help. I’ve noted this before, but blaming “consultants” for the DOE’s budget problem is like blaming “welfare moms” for the national debt.  Without more revenue, layoffs will continue and class sizes will keep rising.  With a decrease in revenue — a real possibility in a weak economy and our new age of fiscal austerity —  it’s going to be horrible. 

  • il flerpolo

    The math is what it is.  You can fire every consultant and it won’t help. I’ve noted this before, but blaming “consultants” for the DOE’s budget problem is like blaming “welfare moms” for the national debt.  Without more revenue, layoffs will continue and class sizes will keep rising.  With a decrease in revenue — a real possibility in a weak economy and our new age of fiscal austerity —  it’s going to be horrible. 

  • il flerpolo

    The math is what it is.  You can fire every consultant and it won’t help. I’ve noted this before, but blaming “consultants” for the DOE’s budget problem is like blaming “welfare moms” for the national debt.  Without more revenue, layoffs will continue and class sizes will keep rising.  With a decrease in revenue — a real possibility in a weak economy and our new age of fiscal austerity —  it’s going to be horrible. 

  • proteach

    Bloomberg’s agenda being carried out en force.  Most likely, this type of news is celebrated by the DOE as an effective way to portray teachers are excuse makers.  As a teacher with classes with 34 students and some with less than 20, it goes without saying class size makes a difference.

  • Ken Hirsh

    There is no shortage of people that want to teach in NYC.  Agreed?  With pension costs and teacher salaries continuing to climb, we can afford fewer teachers even while increasing the total dollars spent.  Of course, we could raise taxes, although those increases would be counterproductive if too many people left the city as a result.  (I do believe that would happen if taxes were raised significantly, but who knows.)  

    Meanwhile, I agree that Bloomberg has been complicit in this financial mess.  I’m guessing he was surprised (like most) by the financial crisis and/or he had some plan that never came to fruition, but his deals with the UFT are a key factor in our current financial situation.

    Finally, with many more layoffs planned for Wall Street and with pension costs continuing to grow, I think this situation could get much worse.  I see scenarios where the education system financially implodes.  Charter schools will do much better because they generally don’t have the pension issues and they have wage flexibility if per-pupil funding is cut.  Governments might ultimately turn more aggressively to charter schools because they are affordable given financial realities.  

    My random thoughts of the day!

  • Gotyournumber

    Where is your dislike when it come to charter schools not paying rent?
    Where is your dislike when schools are broken down and replaced with four schools with 4x the principals salaries?
    Where is your dislike when you look at salaries at the DOE?
    You have a hidden agenda and your not fair and balanced.

  • http://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/ Norm

    Teacher salary costs should be going down as most of the 8000 losses were retirees at the higher end. If well over half of the teaching staff has been hired in the Bloomberg years, and 50% of the teachers leave after 5 years it makes sense that the costs of salaries in the DOE budget are down. As for pensions – as far as I know these costs are not DOE budget.

  • bee

    Given the “financial realities,” charter schools are certainly not affordable. Charter schools are nothing but a gamble, and not a very sure bet at all. Given the “financial realities,” I find it difficult to understand how almost $700 million will be allocated to “technology,” and find it alarming that so much money is wasted by Bloomberg on administrators, high stakes tests and an army of litigators. Don’t you think it’s kind of irresponsible to enable all these charters to operate when there are so many unresolved issues pertaining to them? As a tax payer, a parent and an educator, it distresses me to see the destruction of one of the things that makes our country great, PUBLIC education.

  • Tim

    Pensions and debt service aren’t included in the DOE’s *operating* budget, but they are indeed part of its overall budget.

    http://schools.nyc.gov/AboutUs/funding/overview/default.htm

  • guest

    Stupid quote: “The math is what it is.  You can fire every consultant and it won’t help. I’ve noted this before, but blaming “consultants” for the DOE’s budget problem is like blaming “welfare moms” for the national debt.  Without more revenue, layoffs will continue and class sizes will keep rising.  With a decrease in revenue — a real possibility in a weak economy and our new age of fiscal austerity —  it’s going to be horrible.”

    BULL…In my school they hired $30,000 consultants (limit for pension collecting retired NYC administrators) to do the jobs of non-teaching AP’s.  NO, they DID NOT let the AP’s go, they now have both (and they are all useless and have caused many problems in the school).  One AP and their consultant cost the school 2 teachers with 10 years and a masters plus 30.  Those two teachers would be 10 classes.  We have kids who can’t take a 4th year of math and science.  That would give 170 students a math class and 170 students a science class.  This would allow classes to not have 34+ (try 50 in some classes).

    You want NYC to have a future, let the kids learn what they need to learn so they can go to college.  Let teachers teach in classes where all the kids actually have chairs and desks. 

    You and your ilk are fighting the wrong fight.  Knock out all the consultants, cancel bad contracts and send the money to the SCHOOLS.  Teachers will have jobs and the city will have more revenue and people will be paying into the pensions AND the kids will learn.

  • Roma Giudetti

    I woke up this morning completely depressed about what my child is learning in school. He is in third grade and his writing assignments look like something a first grader could do.  Do I really have to pay $30,000 a year to get my child a decent education in this city?  It’s just ridiculous.  I am so angry.  Anyone associated with this mayor and this current crop at Tweed need to pay a price for what they have done to kids the last 10+ years.  

  • Guest

    Do the math.

  • Guest

    Bee, are you sure charters are more expensive to operate than non-charters?

  • Tim

    $30,000? That’s so 2006. The top privates are close to $40,000 now.

    It only feels like we’re spending that much on music lessons, foreign language tutors, sports and recreational opportunities, museum and cultural institution memberships, website and magazine subscriptions, books, homeschooling math/English materials, and everything else we do to “supplement” (that’s a euphemism for “counterbalance”) our fine public schools’ curricula.  

  • bee

    Guest, are you sure public schools are more expensive to operate than charters?

  • Guest

    That’s your response?  Um, ok.

    No, I’m not at all sure public schools are more expensive to operate than charters.  Which is why I’m not posting that given the “financial realities,” the DOE should close public schools and replace them with charters. 

  • guest

    For the fools who think charters are cheaper, they aren’t.  They suck the soul of public education.  

    Actually, one of the reasons charters LOOK cheaper is that most teachers work 1, 2 or 3 years and get out.  They either quit from burnout from lousy treatment, leave teaching or move to a real public school.

    Also, charters get more money for each kid and they get a lot of donations that real public schools have to pay for themselves or live without.

  • guest

    The math was done for you.  

    1 non teaching AP + consultant = 340 students getting classes they need to go to college and succeed.

Tips, questions, feedback?

Contact us at .

Word from Our Sponsor

Chalk It Up

Recent Comments

81 comments so far today
View all comments »

RSS Feeds

Newsroom posts Community posts All GothamSchools content

Archives

June 2013
M T W T F S S
« May  
 12
3456789
10111213141516
17181920212223
24252627282930

Copyright Notice