New Yorkers For Smaller Classes, UFT
Ask Judge To Let Voters Decide On Lowering Class Size

April 26, 2006 – A coalition of parents, educators and union leaders today asked a state judge to let voters decide in November whether the city should invest in lower class sizes for New York City’s public school students.

Leaders of several groups in the coalition, including Randi Weingarten, president of the United Federation of Teachers; Lillian Rodriguez-Lopez, president of the Hispanic Federation and chair of New Yorkers for Smaller Class Size and Leonie Haimson, executive director of Class Size Matters, said small class size is the Number One issue for parents, teachers and leading education advocates.

In oral arguments, lawyers for the group asked Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Lewis Stone to direct the city to put a question on the ballot in November asking voters if 25% of the monies from the Campaign For Fiscal Equity case should be set aside to lower class sizes in New York City to statewide levels, where classes are 10% to 60% smaller.
 
The coalition gathered more than 115,000 signatures in an attempt to get the question on last November’s ballot, but Mayor Bloomberg “bumped” it off the ballot and the city is now in court arguing that New York City voters should never have the right to vote on this issue.

“The Campaign for Fiscal Equity lawsuit took forever to be decided in the courts and we are still waiting to receive the funding,” Rodriguez-Lopez said. “Now we have the Smaller Class Size lawsuit because city officials don’t want you to decide the issue.  As New Yorkers who value education and our children, you should be allowed to make smaller classes a priority. Our children deserve a better chance to learn and succeed.”

Weingarten said: “Small class size is the top issue for parents and educators – but obviously not for the city and the Department of Education. Something is very wrong with this picture. Why isn’t this a city priority when common sense and research shows that smaller classes, combined with qualified teachers are the key to higher student achievement and better discipline?”

“We are fighting in court so that our children will someday be provided with the smaller classes they need and deserve – and also to preserve the right of all New Yorkers to have a voice in educational policy,” Haimson said. She noted the state comptroller’s office recently found that the city was violating the law by creating only 20 additional classes with $89 million in state class size reduction funds instead of the 1,586 classes that DOE officials had claimed. “Unfortunately, in their briefs the mayor and chancellor argue that they are the only two people who should have any say when it comes to our schools,” Haimson said.

City Council Member Robert Jackson, founder and lead plaintiff in the Campaign for Fiscal Equity case and an intervener in the current lawsuit, said, "In CFE, the State Supreme Court said class sizes in New York City are much too large and that was confirmed by the highest court in the state. Now that we have the additional $11.2 billion in capital funding, we have a mandate to reduce class sizes in city schools - at least to the average size found in the rest of the state."

Following the press conference, lawyers Jerry Goldfeder and Alan Klinger presented oral arguments on behalf of the named petitioners in the suit, while Randy Mastro, a deputy mayor in the Giuliani administration and a former chair of the New York City Charter Commission, spoke for the Hispanic Federation and Jackson, both of whom intervened in the case.

Goldfeder and Klinger argued that state law says the question must automatically be put on the ballot because all the legal arguments were met and the question is a proper issue for a referendum. Mastro argued that state law does not pre-empt the proposed charter amendment and that voters have the right to enact charter amendments modifying the mayor’s powers with respect to the administration of the public school system.

A host of civic groups have filed friend-of-the-court briefs in support of the right of voters to decide this issue. They include: The Chancellor’s Parental Advisory Committee, the NAACP, the Citizen’s Union, the Hispanic Federation, Class Size Matters, the Alliance for Quality Education, the Citywide Council on High Schools, the Presidents’ Council for District 1 in Manhattan, the Community Education Council from District 15 in Brooklyn and the Parents Association of PS 41 in Queens.

A newspaper poll last fall shows that class size is the top educational priority of New York City voters. A survey of active parents and advocates by Fordham University found that only 4% agreed with the mayor’s priorities for our schools. The overwhelming majority wants him to focus on reducing class size instead.   

At least 32 states and some localities have class size reduction programs or limit class size by law, including Texas, Tennessee, California and North Carolina. In 2002, Florida voters amended their state constitution to require smaller classes in all grades.