Maya Wiley is promising to hire 1,000 additional teachers as part of an effort to create smaller classes in New York City public schools, becoming the first of the leading mayoral candidates to put forth a plan that addresses the system's historically overcrowded classrooms.
The pledge was wedged among a bulleted list of education proposals her campaign released Thursday. Other ideas include investing money to create academic intervention teams at schools, expanding broadband access for students, ensuring that every school has a full-time nurse, and giving parents more of a say in their school's budget decisions.
Of those proposals, reducing class size stands out because of how perennial and contentious the problem has been in New York City. The teachers union and education advocacy groups have spent more than two decades battling the Department of Education in court over failing in its promise to spend hundreds of millions of earmarked state money on class-size reductions. Instead, class sizes in public schools have increased over the years. Both parents and teachers have generally been in strong support of smaller classes.
Wiley plan states that she is committed to spending "at least $100 million" on reducing class sizes. The number is short of the goal of the teachers' union, which is calling for $150 million to hire 1,500 teachers.
"It's a decent start," said Leonie Haimson, the executive director of Class Size Matters, a nonprofit advocacy group which has urged the city to spend $1 billion towards class size reductions.
She applauded Wiley for putting class size on her mayoral agenda and said that she hoped it would push other candidates to do the same.
“It’s what we’ve known for years would make all the difference. Any mayoral candidate who doesn't mention the issue is not really facing the reality of what students are facing every day," she said.
According to Wiley's plan, the $100 million will come from anticipated state and federal funding and "through addressing school construction inefficiencies, such as mistaken overpayment of rent subsidies for charter schools."
Aside from hiring more teachers, finding additional classroom space is a major challenge for reducing class size. In her plan, Wiley said she would convert vacant lots into outdoor classrooms and rent unused commercial spaces.
New York City schools are expected to receive billions from the federal and state government over the next two years, an unprecedented amount that the next mayor will have to fix the city's school system, which has been plagued by chronic underfunding and racial segregation. The funding includes a historic infusion of state money, $530 million for this fiscal year and $1.3 billion over the next three years, that settles a 2006 court order that found that New York City schools were being short-changed.
City Comptroller Scott Stringer, the only other candidate to offer detailed education investments with estimated costs, has also proposed to hire more teachers, but instead of reducing class sizes, he has said he would require two teachers in every elementary school classroom.
Wiley did not hold a press conference on her plan. Instead, she went on a walking tour of Brooklyn's Bedford-Stuyvesant, saying that she wanted to bring more "trauma informed care" to school students in areas with shootings and violence.
The average class size across all grades in New York City public schools for the 2018-19 school year was 26.4 students per class, slightly higher than the prior year. Public school classes in the city are on average 15% to 30% larger than those in the rest of the state, according to a recent Chalkbeat story. Some studies have shown a link between smaller class sizes and better academic achievement, although one study involving college students argues for a more nuanced examination.
Wiley's plan comes as the teachers' union is undergoing its mayoral endorsement process. Wiley was one of four candidates the United Federation of Teachers invited to participate in an in-person forum last week. The others included Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, Stringer and Andrew Yang. The UFT's 3,200-member Delegate Assembly, which votes on the candidates, is reportedly leaning toward Stringer.
This story has been updated to clarify that a study questioning the link between class size and academic achievement involved college students, not children.
