The Big Idea: Maya Wiley Pledges To Decrease Class Sizes In NYC Schools

For some New York City education policy experts, the mission of reducing class sizes can be likened to a holy grail. Advocacy groups as well as the teachers union have spent two decades battling the Department of Education in court over unfulfilled mandates to use funding to lower head counts in classrooms. Mayors, including Bill de Blasio, have promised to reduce class sizes, but despite introducing caps, nearly a third of public school students were in classes of 30 or more students during the 2019-2020 academic year.

But under a 2007 plan approved by the state, the city agreed to move toward class sizes of fewer than 20 children for kindergarten through grade 3; 23 children for grades 4 through 8, and 25 children for grades 9 through 12.

Now Maya Wiley, one of the progressive candidates for mayor, is vowing to follow through on this issue. The former civil rights attorney who worked as counsel to Mayor de Blasio has incorporated the goal of smaller class sizes into her education plan.

Both Kathryn Garcia, the city's former sanitation commissioners, and Dianne Morales, a former public school teacher, have also called for decreasing class sizes. But Wiley is so far the only candidate in the race to propose a plan with a cost estimate and rollout strategy.

The idea comes at both a critical and opportune time. New York City has the largest public school system in the country, with about 1 million students, and it was the first major city to reopen schools for in-person learning during the pandemic. Schools were forced to have smaller class sizes to meet federal social distancing guidelines.

Meanwhile, the public health crisis has ushered in unprecedented funding for education. In addition to federal stimulus money, the city's public schools also now stand to benefit from a historic infusion of state money, $530 million for this fiscal year and rising up to $1.3 billion over the next three years.

"We've never had a better time to prioritize this," Wiley told Gothamist. "Crisis points are our best opportunity points to restructure how we do things. And a big part of this is about restructuring."

What is Wiley's plan?

Wiley has said she would hire 2,500 teachers to pave the way for smaller class sizes. The proposal, which mirrors a City Council proposal, builds on an earlier version she released in April, which called for 1,000 new teachers.

She has estimated that by hiring additional teachers, the Department of Education could shrink the size of almost 10,000 classes. She said her focus would be on early childhood and grades K-5, initially in neighborhoods with the most overcrowded elementary schools as well as ones hit hardest by COVID-19.

In addition to providing better overall learning conditions, Wiley said she believes smaller classes can also facilitate early childhood intervention. Teachers with fewer students can have more time to diagnose those with learning disabilities. She argued that too often, conditions like dyslexia go untreated.

"Overcrowding is one of the reasons why it doesn't happen," she said.

Many schools will need more building space in order to accommodate smaller classes. Wiley said she would seek to take advantage of vacancies in residential and commercial buildings. Under her New Deal New York plan, she has proposed a $10 billion capital spending program. Part of that money could be used to renovate and build more school space, she said.

How much would it cost? How would the city pay for it?

Wiley estimates her plan to cost approximately $250 million in the first year. She is proposing to use federal stimulus money and the aforementioned increase in state aid, as well as federal and state funding dedicated to infrastructure improvements.

What do studies say about reducing class sizes?

Supporters of smaller class sizes often point to a Tennessee study performed in the late 1980s that found students in grades K-3 that were in classes of between 13 to 17 students performed better than those in classes of 22 to 25. Four years later, students in smaller class sizes showed an achievement gain of about three months of schooling. The effect was especially pronounced among low-income and minority children.

Other studies in Texas and Israel had similar findings, although with smaller gains than those in the Tennessee study.

But the evidence is not incontrovertible. Research in other states and countries has found either mixed or no effects.

What are the challenges of creating smaller classes?

The biggest obstacle to a policy of smaller class sizes is cost. Not only do school districts need to hire more teachers, but in many cases, build more space. On top of that, school budgets are notoriously strained, leaving some to argue that smaller class sizes may not be the most productive use of money.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg came into office in 2002 embracing smaller class sizes. But he later resisted the policy, arguing that teacher quality overrode the importance of class size. “Double the class size with a better teacher is a good deal for students," he once said. Under his administration, the Department of Education refused to cut class sizes even though it received state funding specifically earmarked for that purpose.

What do education experts say?

Leonie Haimson, the executive director of Class Size Matters, an advocacy group, is among the most vocal proponents of smaller class sizes in New York City. Her organization has urged the city to invest $1 billion on the policy, a sum demanded more than a decade ago by the teachers' union.

Still, Haimson has called Wiley's plan "a good start."

In addition to hiring more teachers, she said the city should explore buying parochial schools, many of which closed over the years due to declining enrollment, as well as require large developers to include a school as part of their projects or pay into a fund to finance one.

"We need to really put more emphasis on finding space," Haimson said.

The United Federation of Teachers, the 200,000-member teachers' union, has also long pushed for smaller class sizes.

As part of its recent five-point recovery plan, the union has called on the city to create a pilot program of smaller class sizes in 100 of the city’s neediest schools. The UFT estimated such an initiative as costing $150 million a year to hire at least 1,500 teachers.

"Such reductions, while not matching the class-size levels of exclusive New York City private schools, would make city schools more competitive with schools in the suburbs in class size," the proposal states.

Despite Wiley's surpassing the union's hiring goals, the UFT has endorsed rival candidate Scott Stringer, who has proposed a $370 million plan to hire more teachers. But his plan would not reduce class sizes, instead it would require two teachers in K-5 classrooms.

Advocates point to a growing groundswell of support for smaller class sizes. According to Haimson, smaller class sizes show up as a top priority in Department of Education's surveys when parents are asked what changes they would like to see in schools.

The Chancellor's Parent Advisory Council, which represents PTAs in the city, is among several groups in support of the current City Council proposal to allocate $250 million next year toward reducing class sizes.

In its report, the Council described targeting smaller classes as "imperative" to addressing learning loss.

"It's the one thing that our schools need more than anything else to really increase opportunities for kids to learn and teachers to teach," Haimson said. "This allows teachers to use their own skills and better perform with no other changes necessary."

This story is part of The Big Idea, a series explaining bold and interesting ideas pitched by candidates in the mayor's race. Listen to WNYC's All Things Considered for an interview with the reporter about the plan and more news from the campaign trail.