TESTIMONY
Dale Kelly on the Implementation Challenges of New York's Class Size Law
2:41:48
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4 min
Dale Kelly, First Vice President of the Council of School Supervisors and Administrators, testifies on the implementation challenges of New York's new class size law.
- Kelly acknowledges the positive impact of smaller class sizes on student learning but highlights funding and space constraints as significant challenges.
- He expresses concern over the potential need to cut after-school programs and adjust school enrollments to comply with class size limits.
- The testimony underscores an existing teacher shortage in key subjects, complicating the recruitment of enough qualified teachers.
- Kelly calls for increased funding for school construction to accommodate the new law, noting a potential $22 billion to $27 billion cost.
- He emphasizes the importance of transparency with families regarding potential student displacement and the necessity of a collaborative effort to ensure effective implementation.
Dale Kelly
2:41:48
Good afternoon.
2:41:50
Good afternoon, Chair Joseph.
2:41:53
And before I begin, I'd just like to thank you for your unwavering support in New York City Public Schools and our students and our school leaders.
2:41:59
Your partnership has been invaluable and greatly appreciated.
2:42:03
My name is Dale Kelly, 1st vice vice president of the Council of School Supervised And Administrators.
2:42:09
You for the opportunity to speak today at this incredibly important hearing on the implementation of the state's new class size law.
2:42:17
Firstly, let me be clear.
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CSA believes in smaller class sizes.
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School leaders know firsthand the positive effects.
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That smaller class sizes will ultimately have on student learning.
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That being said, from the inception of the class law legislation, we have been steadfast that the law must be implemented in a fully transparent and responsible manner.
2:42:42
Despite best intentions there are critical challenges that we must address together.
2:42:49
The majority of our school leaders have expressed serious concerns related to the lack of adequate funding for additional teachers, additional power professionals, and or space needed to comply with the law.
2:43:03
I was very happy here to hear today that trade off seems to be a nonstarter for many people.
2:43:09
Because we know that if additional funding is not provided to help schools meet class size limits, many schools will be forced to eliminate existing after school programs that support the arts, music, sports, stem tutoring, robotics, and other areas.
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Schools may have to also reduce their enrollment and or alter how to utilize spaces to support existing classes for their schools.
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The DOE has been transparent.
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There are many schools that have no capacity to expand and no additional space to allow for additional classrooms.
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Resulting in a need for new school construction.
2:43:47
As of now, there is no indication that the city has the ability to absorb these additional costs, and the law will become an unfunded mandate in this regard.
2:43:58
To Mike Zill's point, a second goal today was the first day we heard that $22,000,000,000 to $27,000,000,000 price tag attached to the school construction.
2:44:07
Previously, they had estimated that those costed somewhere between 30 to 35,000,000,000,000, which we questioned in our tripartite committee work, and that's been an ongoing conversation.
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Additionally, there is already an existing teacher shortage in subject areas such as Specialty education, science, mathematics, bilingual education, and others.
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Given the already high level of need, the teachers in these and other licensed areas.
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Our school leaders have no confidence that this system will be able to recruit a satisfactory pool of applicants for school leads the higher the appropriate number of teachers needed to meet this class size mandate.
2:44:49
And please remember that for any of substantial increase in the number of teachers will require that we all advocate advocate for proportional in crease and the additional school administrators to support the development of new teachers to ensure that the smaller class sizes have the desired impact that we're looking for.
2:45:09
Otherwise, the academic gains from smaller class sizes may be eroded since new teachers naturally require more professional development and support.
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In both these areas, we stand willing and ready to provide our colleagues with the support that they need and they deserve.
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Finally, We must be transparent with families that class size reduction can possibly pose a risk of displacement for both current as well as incoming students.
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We must ensure that no family is forced to accept classroom seats outside their intended zone or unwilling have to unwillingly have to travel to a less congested school outside their district.
2:45:54
Again, we fully support the idea of reducing class size.
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However, We continue to call out the truth that underserved on the current circumstances.
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School leaders will be left without adequate resources to ensure a safe and high quality education for all students and the schools may be forced to abandon the programming that families have come to rely on us for.
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We are committed at CSA to working from a solution based lens.
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We fully believe that the lowering of class sizes would ultimately benefit our students, our families, and our school system as a whole, and we want a partner to get this right.
2:46:33
Thank you for your time.