NY lawmakers to give Zohran Mamdani 2-year extension to comply with NYC class size mandate

“Sign up for Chalkbeat New York’s free daily newsletter to get essential news about NYC’s public schools delivered to your inbox. A widely anticipated last-minute deal will give New York City two additional years to comply with a state law to shrink classes, according to legislation introduced Monday. And in a separate agreement between the United Federation of Teachers and the city’s Education Department announced Monday, educators will be eligible for a pay bump if their classes are above the caps, union officials said. The 2022 state law had required the city to cap 80% of its classrooms by this fall at 20 to 25 students, depending on grade level. By the 2027-28 school year, all classes were expected to meet the mandate. Now, the city will instead have to bring 70% of its classes into compliance this school year with an additional 10% in each of the next three school years, giving the city until the 2029-30 school year to meet the mandate. Those changes — which state, city, and union officials have been negotiating for months — are a significant part of Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s plan to balance the city’s budget. City officials banked on the delayed rollout of the law to save hundreds of millions of dollars to help close a multibillion dollar budget gap. Mamdani’s campaign to convince state officials to give the city more time to comply represented a departure from his campaign pledge to swiftly implement the class size law, which he accused former Mayor Eric Adams of slow-walking. Mamdani voted for the law when he was a member of the state assembly. “I am proud that our administration is implementing it in good faith,” Mamdani said in a statement. “Extending this timeline gives our schools the opportunity to reduce class sizes in a way that is sustainable and responsible.” The city’s teachers union acknowledged Monday that the city is unlikely to reach the 70% compliance rate without relying on exemptions allowed under the law. (This school year, the city relied on thousands of exemptions to meet the 60% threshold required by law.) “If giving this new administration two more years gets us a partner committed to building the necessary seats, then it is the fastest way to turn the law into reality,” UFT President Michael Mulgrew said in a statement. The union secured an “accountability incentive” that will put financial pressure on the city to avoid exemptions in the long run, union officials said. In cases where the city issues exemptions from the law because a building doesn’t have additional space to shrink classes or can’t hire enough staff, teachers will be eligible for additional pay. Neither the Education Department nor the union provided a copy of the agreement or confirmed how much money teachers could earn. The deal is likely to renew equity concerns, as more affluent schools tend to be more crowded and stand to benefit the most from the class size law. Union officials said additional pay would be distributed to schools based on their economic need, though it was not immediately clear how that would work. “We hope a differential will be an incentive to do the recruitment, hiring, and construction needed to fulfill the law,” Mulgrew said. An Education Department spokesperson did not respond to questions about the incentives. The legislation extending the deadlines to comply with the class size law was initially expected to be folded into the state budget, which was finalized last week nearly two months past the April 1 deadline, but negotiations dragged on. The legislative session ends Thursday. Research suggests smaller class sizes tend to boost student learning and are broadly popular with families and educators. But the law would benefit relatively more affluent schools the most because they tend to be more crowded, multiple analyses have found, sparking concern from the state’s education commissioner . City officials have argued that reaching 80% compliance this fall would have been difficult without a major influx of funding. They also expressed doubt about whether the city could recruit thousands of additional teachers. In Mamdani’s February preliminary budget, he earmarked $547 million in new spending to lower class sizes, and officials had previously indicated they would need to hire 6,000 additional teachers. But anticipating a rollback to the class size law, Mamdani’s executive budget plan released this month included just $122 million to hire 1,000 teachers. The mayor’s budget proposal also added $1.5 billion in capital funding , as many schools need additional space in their current buildings to shrink classes. The Education Department has so far avoided more contentious measures to reduce classes that could avoid costs associated with building new classrooms, such as capping enrollment at popular campuses and sending students to schools with empty seats or rethinking school zones. State Sen. John Liu, a Queens lawmaker who championed the class size law and sponsored the changes to it, said he was open to giving the city more time to comply with the law if the Education Department came up with a clear plan. On Monday, Liu said in a statement he was satisfied the city had “clear and accountable teacher recruitment and classroom construction plans.” But neither Liu nor the city’s Education Department provided copies of those plans, and some advocates for smaller classes demanded transparency. “Let’s see the city’s class size plan to confirm it’s not all smoke and mirrors,” Leonie Haimson, the executive director of the advocacy group Class Size Matters, said in a statement. “At the very least, the Department of Education should have to present it before the [city] council votes on the education budget and the capital plan.” The city’s budget must be finalized by the end of the month. Asked about the class size legislation, Gov. Kathy Hochul told reporters it will give the city “more breathing room to roll out the cost of it,” according to a transcript. “This was a budget issue that the city asked the teachers for relief from,” she said. Alex Zimmerman is a senior reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org .

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