The Fourth R: A Mother's Resolve

By ANEMONA HARTOCOLLIS

The New York Times

Published: November 2, 2003

By now you've probably received many glossy brochures in your mailbox urging you to vote Yes on Proposal 3 (nonpartisan elections). These mailings, we have learned, come courtesy of Mayor Bloomberg's largess toward causes, charitable and political, in which he believes.

In contrast, as Tuesday's election approaches, you probably have not received any literature promoting Proposal 6. Proposal 6 would have asked the voters whether they wanted to create a Charter Commission to study the possibility of reducing the average number of children in public-school classes in New York City. That's study, not go ahead and do it.

Before this referendum could see the light of day, Mr. Bloomberg, who relishes the nickname the Education Mayor, persuaded a state court to strike it from the ballot, arguing that under state law, the mayor's proposals to change the Charter are so important that they bump other ballot questions.

Many accounts of the struggle over Proposal 6 have depicted it as an evenly matched battle between two titans: City Hall and the United Federation of Teachers. But closer to the schools, many parents and public-school advocates view it as a classic case of David against Goliath, although the underdog has, for the moment, been defeated.

David, in this case, is a Harvard-educated mother of two named Leonie Haimson, who has the obsessed, prickly manner of whistle-blowers and crusaders from Joan of Arc to Erin Brockovich. Seven years ago, Ms. Haimson had an epiphany. Roe Wrubel, her daughter's first-grade teacher at P.S. 3 in Greenwich Village, confided that she sometimes caught herself wishing that some of the 29 children in her class would be home sick that day, because the class was so much easier to teach if even one or two children were absent.

Ms. Haimson had never given class size a moment's thought before, but this comment got her thinking. "I discovered two salient facts that I in my naïveté had never known," she recalled last week over a corn muffin in the Washington Square Diner near New York University. "One was that New York City had by far the largest classes in the state. The second was that there was a link between class size and achievement."

Reducing class size, though costly, struck Ms. Haimson as the nearest thing to a magic bullet for what ailed the public schools. Private schools typically have classes of 16 to 18. Pelham, in Westchester County, has classes of 17 to 20 in lower grades, 21 in eighth grade. New York City's average last year was 22 in kindergarten through third grade, but 30 percent of those classes had more than 25 students, and half of all middle school classes had more than 30 students, according to the city's Independent Budget Office.

Ms. Haimson later abandoned her job as a writer for an environmental magazine to pursue her crusade, under the slogan Class Size Matters. She networked with parents in California and Florida, states that have passed laws limiting class size, and with advocacy groups. Over the summer, aided by the teachers' union, Ms. Haimson's campaign paid off, as volunteers collected 115,000 signatures to put Proposal 6 on the ballot Tuesday.

On Oct. 24, the day after the bid to keep Proposal 6 on the ballot lost on appeal, Ms. Haimson rushed to the Board of Elections and picked up an absentee ballot. There it was: Proposal 6, memorialized just as she had dreamed it would be on the preprinted ballots. It was a bittersweet souvenir.

Ms. Haimson and her supporters have voiced their dismay over the death of Proposal 6 through a flurry of e-mails to Mr. Bloomberg. To their wonder and delight, the mayor himself (according to his press office) has replied, signing his e-mails "Mike." One parent wrote: "You have failed miserably to address this problem." Said Mike: "Everyone is in favor of smaller class size, and the only way we can get them is if the teachers teach an extra period each day."

To which the parent replied: "We want to reduce class size now!" Said Mike: "Couldn't agree more. Now just what do you want to cut to pay for this?"

Ms. Haimson has heard the arguments that teacher training matters more than class size. Still, she says, how much could a study hurt? Of the mayor, she says, "Well, you know, obviously I wish he had let the voters express their desire on this."

Ms. Haimson's daughter is now in eighth grade at a private school. "I was sick and tired of being the only person except maybe her father who noticed when she was excelling and when she didn't understand something at all," Ms. Haimson said. She still has a kindergartner in public school. As for Proposal 6, there's always next year.