New York City vows to hire nearly 4,000 new teachers for the start of the next school year
New York City public schools are moving one step closer to meeting a state mandate to have smaller class sizes.
Mayor Eric Adams joined Schools Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos earlier this week in announcing the city will hire nearly 4,000 teachers for the next school year.
NYC moving closer to state-mandated guidelines on class size
The mayor and schools chancellor announced Tuesday that 60% of city schools -- around 750 -- will get support to hire 3,700 new teachers for next school year to create smaller classes.
The state mandates that classes must be limited to 20 students in K-3, 23 students grades 4-8, and 25 students in high school by 2028.
The money will come out of the mayor's executive budget, so recruitment can start now.
"You have to pay teachers what they deserve so they don't have to worry about mortgages while they're developing the minds of their children," Adams said.
Teacher Tracy Ivanic pitched the idea that individual schools come up with the plans. She said her special ed class will go from 32 to 20 students.
"So the behavior is going to improve as well. More work is going to get done and our students are going to be better prepared," Ivanic said.
But do enough NYC schools have the needed space?
Student advocates say the plan doesn't solve the issue of overcrowding. Public School 88, the Seneca School in Ridgewood, Queens, is one of the schools struggling with that.
"Thirty people is too much," one parent said.
"There's a lot of talking and it's harder to focus," said Jaylene Torres, the mother of a third grader.
Leonie Haimson, the executive director of the group Class Size Matters, said what the announcement also does not address is the lack of physical space for smaller classes.
"We know there are at least 500 schools that do not have the space for smaller classes. They enroll nearly half of all students and the DOE has been dragging their feet," Haimson said.
"All of our schools could apply as long as they had space," Aviles-Ramos said.
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The schools chancellor did not answer a question regarding what to do about those who do not have the space, but Class Size Matters says last year the New York State Legislature made the city put money back in the budget for school construction.
"It's hard to really be able to give that level of attention to detail to each of these kids," parent Justin Diaz said.
"I'm for the smaller class. You have more individualized attention," grandparent Lourdes Mendez said.
Class Size Matters says it's still unclear if the city has a plan to meet the requirement for 100% of schools to have smaller classes by the fall of 2028.
