My name is Michael Sill, and I am the Assistant Secretary of the United Federation of Teachers (UFT). On behalf of the more than 190,000 UFT members, I would like to thank Chair and UFT member Mark Treyger and all of the members of the Committee on Education for holding today’s very important hearing on class size reduction and “zombie” charter schools.

I would like to start by clearly stating that it could not be more appropriate for these two topics to be discussed together at the same hearing. The message from the State FY2021 Executive Budget is unmistakable: let’s first shortchange New York City (NYC) public schools $136M while owing the students $1.1B, which is funding that can be used to reduce class sizes, and then on top of that let’s exacerbate the financial problem by increasing the number of charter schools in NYC that will only drain more funding from our traditional public schools.

Enough is enough.

Background on class size reduction efforts

The most targeted program we have in NYC to reduce class sizes is Contracts for Excellence, which was implemented in 2007 as a result of the Campaign for Fiscal Equity (CFE) court case ruling. In essence, the program requires NYC to sign a contract with the State Education Department (SED) promising to use part of its total foundation aid allocation for the year to target specific schools that must subsequently spend the funding in specific target areas, with class size reduction as the most prominent target area.

As envisioned in 2007, the goal of the Contracts for Excellence program was to reduce class sizes over a five-year period so that by fall 2011, all classroom enrollment across NYC would reflect the following numbers:

• Kindergarten to Grade 3: 20 students
• Grade 4 to Grade 8: 23 students
• Grade 9 to Grade 12 (core classes only): 25 students

While understandably ambitious, the five-year period came and went and NYC public school classrooms failed to hit the set goalposts. Instead, NYC Department of Education (DOE) data from the 2011-12 school year showed that 85% of students in K-3 were in classrooms with more than 20 students, 81% of students in grades 4-8 were in classrooms with more than 23 students, and 71% of high school students were in classrooms with more than 25 students.

The problem of overcrowded classrooms continued to persist after the 2011 to 2012 school year all the while funding from the State continued its precipitous decline. Interestingly enough, a recent report released by NYC Independent Budget Office shows that precisely in 2011 the State’s investment in NYC public schools as a percentage of the entire DOE budget began to fall below NYC’s investment. Since then, the State’s investment as a percentage of the total DOE budget has never rebounded and in 2019 hit its lowest in 30 years.

Funding the NYC DOE allocates to schools through Contracts for Excellence is intended to supplement existing programs in schools receiving the funding, not supplant or fill in gaps for existing programs. However, while the needs of NYC public school students continue to increase and the State’s investment in our public-school students continues to decline, schools have no other choice but to use Contracts for Excellence funds to fill in programming gaps in areas other than class size reduction. In the last decade, the number of students with special needs has increased by 63% and the number of English language learners has increased by 24%; meanwhile the number of homeless students has increased by 70%, with almost 1 in 10 students classified as homeless or living in temporary housing during the 2018 to 2019 school year.

The most recent data published by the NYC DOE on class sizes shows that during in the 2018 to 2019 school year we again failed to meet the goals set for the 2011 to 2012 school year. The data published by the NYC DOE shows the following estimated average classroom enrollment figures:

• Kindergarten to Grade 3: 24 students
• Grade 4 to Grade 8: 26.5 students
• Grade 9 to Grade 12 (core classes only): 26.4 students

Particularly egregious is the overcrowding in classrooms for students in Kindergarten to Grade 3, with on average 4 more students in each classroom than set by the 2011 goal. Acknowledging that something needs to be done about overcrowded classrooms, the UFT decided to step in and take charge by establishing a new procedure in our contract with the NYC DOE that more effectively addresses teacher-issued complaints related to overcrowded classrooms.

UFT 2018 contract working to reduce class size

It’s no challenge to understand that smaller class sizes benefit both our public-school students and teachers. Smaller class sizes give teacher more time to differentiate instruction, invest more one-on-one time with students, and better assess the needs of each individual child. For these reasons, the UFT made reducing class size a priority in its most recent 2018 contract with the NYC DOE.

We know that reducing class sizes works for all. That is why we are also doing more with less funding and decided to add a new procedure that has led to a dramatic reduction in oversize classes in schools. At the usual annual benchmark – day 10 of the 2019 to 2020 school year – there were 350 schools with a total of 1,570 oversize classes, down from more than 400 schools and more than 2,000 oversize classes at that same time last year.

But in addition, thanks to a new procedure that empowered local superintendents working with UFT district representatives to intervene, by the middle of October 2019, 70 percent of the schools with oversize classes had eliminated them. By day 21 of the new school year, 105 schools had oversize classes.

Before the new procedure, the only rules that limit class size in New York City schools were those established in the UFT contract, making them enforceable through a process of hearings before independent third-party arbitrators who could order the principals to comply. But because of limits on hearing days, the process would take months; leaving classes oversized that entire time.

Under the new contract procedures negotiated in the 2018 agreement, principals have 10 days after school starts to reduce oversize classes to the contract limits. If they fail to do so, the cases are referred to local superintendents, who can intervene to make sure principals bring the class sizes into line.

John Harrington, the UFT rep for District 24 in Queens, traditionally one of the most over-crowded districts in New York City recently said, “the change in the contract created a much greater level of urgency around oversized classes, and made fixing them a priority. In the past, it was a lower priority. A sense of urgency wouldn’t kick in until the DOE called to say the school’s class size arbitration hearing had been set.”

Last school year the district had 82 oversized classes across 20 schools on Day 6 and 34 still by Day 10 across 12 schools– and all were sent to arbitration. This year Harrington said his district had 103 oversized classes on Day 6 across 20 schools, and that was down to 27 by Day 10 across 10 schools and zero oversize classes by October. Harrington said District 24 is known as an overcrowded district, so this is a real improvement, good for students, teachers and staff.

Now imagine what could be done if schools could properly invest the funding allocated to them through Contracts for Excellence to reduce class size? Funding from the State in the tune of the $1.1B that is still owed to NYC public school students would not only reinforce the achievements of the new procedure, but will ultimately help us get to a place where we have zero oversized classrooms across all of NYC at the start of each school year.

“Zombie” charter schools are a nonstarter

While the State FY 2021 Executive Budget proposes shortchanging NYC public school students and makes no mention of a commitment to pay the money it owes the school district, it is bold about its proposal to circumvent the cap on new charter schools in New York City by allowing a charter that is a reissuance of a surrendered, revoked or terminated charter to not count against the cap — reviving 18 so-called “zombie” charters. It’s unconscionable to accept such a proposal while knowing that charters drain funding from our public schools that are siphoned into dark spaces that lack transparency and accountability. The NYC public school system already spends $2.4B in charter schools annually.

We must keep the charter school cap in place and avoid bringing back “zombie” charters. A loophole in existing law allows for a single charter issued by the state to operate three schools. A charter, for example, may be initially granted to serve grades k-5, but in the future may apply for a charter revision to add on subsequent grades up until grade 12. There are some charters that operate pre-k through grade 12, meaning they run an elementary, middle and high school, essentially three schools under one charter. The existing loophole already allows for many charters to grow, there is no need to statutorily increase the cap.

Additionally, with the expansion of charter schools inevitably comes the potential need for the City and State to provide new charter schools funding to operate in private spaces. New York City already spends over $60M in charter school facilities aid, and this year’s State Executive Budget includes a $50 million allocation, up from $31.5 million in last year’s Enacted Budget, for NYC charter school facilities aid. These are public taxpayer dollars that ultimately end up in the hands of private landlords.

In addition to echoing the City Council’s call to keep the charter cap in place, we urge the City Council to call on the State Legislature and the Governor to pass and sign S.5950 (Mayer)/A.8029 (Benedetto) that limits the school grade level expansions for charter schools so that one charter does not virtually allow for three schools to exist is a part of the enacted budget, and S.6043 (Liu)/A.8027 (Benedetto) that will repeal the ever-increasing charter school facilities aid that continues to siphon public dollars into the private real estate industry.

Closing thoughts

Achieving our goal of making sure 100% of all of our classrooms in NYC are not oversized by the first day of school will only be possible when the State decides to properly invest in our public schools. Until then, because we fundamentally understand the value of small class sizes, we at the UFT will continue to act as we did with our new class size reduction procedure. It’s time for us as a city to unite and say enough siphoning off public taxpayer dollars to charter schools and enough shortchanging our public-school students. Let’s continue our collective advocacy work until we get Albany to understand that without their fair share, our students will also have to continue to do more with less.