Justice Leland DeGrasse
Dear Justice DeGrasse:
Enclosed please find a copy
of a letter from elected officials, Community Education Councilmembers,
parents and concerned citizens, urging you to order strengthened accountability
measures in the Campaign for Fiscal Equity case. As you can see, since this letter
was originally sent to you on January 10, it has gathered additional support,
including the signatures of New York City Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum, New York State Assemblymembers
Scott Stringer and James Brennan, City Councilmember David Yassky,
and many more elected Community Education Councilmembers,
PTA presidents, and other active parents and advocates.
Moreover, as the attached
press clipping from today’s Newsday indicates, the need for additional
accountability and oversight over New York City’s use of education funds is
reinforced by the fact that yesterday, three elected officials from New York
City, City Council Speaker Gifford Miller, State Senator Eric Schneiderman, and City Councilmember Robert Jackson, a plaintiff
in the CFE lawsuit, asked the New York State Comptroller to perform an audit of
New York City’s use of the state class size reduction funds.
This request was triggered
by several findings, including the fact that New York City Department of
Education officials have misreported class size data for at least the last two
years in a row. The New York City Independent Budget office found that contrary
to official reports by DOE officials, average class sizes rose citywide last
year in Kindergarten for the first time since the state class size reduction
program began six years ago. In response to the IBO findings, the city has
admitted releasing inaccurate class size data, by including their calculations
non-existing classes of long-term absent students.
The IBO also found that in
15 districts throughout the city, average class sizes rose last year for grades
K-3, and only decreased in 14 districts, despite declining enrollment in these
grades. According to the IBO, because of the lack of
progress in reducing class size, only 38% of Kindergarten students in NYC were
in classes last year that met the state goal of 20 or less; only 33% of first
and second graders, and only 28% of third graders were
in classes of 20.
Moreover, though the New
York City Department of Education has reported to the New York State Education
Department that it has formed 1,586 additional
classes in grades K-3 with use of the state funds for the last three
years in a row, the IBO found that last year, our
schools had only 540 more classes in these grades than before the state program
began.
The IBO also found
that the total number of general education classrooms in these grades has
rapidly declined by over 600 since the 2000-2001 school year,
which has considerably stalled progress in reducing class size. The overall decline in number of classrooms appears to violate maintenance of effort provisions
in the state regulations. Full documentation of these issues, including the IBO
letter and excel files, is available at my website at http://www.classsizematters.org/timelineclasssizeaudit.html
These findings underscore
how critical it is to provide strengthened accountability for the use of the additional
funds that the city is likely to receive as a result of the CFE case. We have
to ensure that there is accurate reporting and sufficient public scrutiny as to
the use of these funds, so that we can ensure that as many of the additional
resources provided go towards improving the specific school and classroom
conditions which were found to be constitutionally deficient in the case,
rather than siphoned off for other purposes.
Only if strengthened accountability, public review and oversight is provided, we will be assured that someday soon, our
children will finally receive their right to a sound basic education.
Yours,
Class Size Matters
124 Waverly Pl.
212674-7320
email: leonie@att.net