Sue Edelman has a piece in the NY Post on the loopholes in the class size law that might be used. For those wondering, there are four major exemptions:
The exemptions cover: lack of space, “over-enrolled” programs, a shortage of licensed teachers, and schools in “severe economic distress.”
The class size limits for NYC:
The law, signed by Gov. Hochul last September, caps kindergarten through third-grade classes at 20 students, fourth through eighth grade at 23, and high school at 25.
The law is being phased in over the next five years.
Under the law, the city must have 20% of classes meet the caps by 2023-24, and 40% by 2024-25.
“We are on track to be in compliance for years 1 and 2,” according to the DOE.
But compliance must increase to 60% in the third year, 80% in the fourth year, and 100% by 2027-28.
That will require a massive effort to recruit a projected 7,000 new teachers at an estimated cost of $1 billion a year.
This is my favorite part of the article:
Under the law, all exemptions must be approved by both the teachers’ union and the principals’ union. If the three entities can’t agree, an arbitrator will decide.
We can pay that $1,475 per hour to Arbitrator Martin Scheinman so he build a new swimming pool to entertain Strook UFT-MLC lawyer Alan Klinger.
Does anyone want to put their crystal ball to work? Will NYC be in compliance by 2027? We can check in 2027-28.
This blog not so boldly predict the answer will be no but I want to be wrong. Then again, if you put different UFT leadership in power, I might change my mind.
13 comments:
So, let's say my elementary school has 20 classroom teachers. According to the law, 20% must meet the new class size limit next year. Does that mean 4 of the classrooms will be required to have the reduced size?
Pretty sure it is school-by-school so it would be 20% of the schools that need to have 100% of their classes in compliance by the fall.
The class size reduction issues were known to the DOE when the law was being configured. The DOE has had a year to figure out how they were going to manage it.
Who decides how many students any one school can accommodate?
What does it mean for a school to be considered under "severe economic distress"?
There are already over 20 percent of schools with class sizes under the limits, so there is nothing they need to change for for next year. However after next year they will need to start inxreasing the number of schools to continue to bring the percentages up. They will start with the easiest schools to do this which doesn't require new schools to be built.. The problem will prolly arise in 3 years when there will be no new buildings and they will say it's an economic issue. Truth is they should start building now... But that's not happening
I thought the school calendar was close to completion... This is weeks ago this was weeks ago!
Mulgrew must be working real hard ( golfing with friendly retirees in FL ) ha ha.
Would there be a reason why federal taxes are not being taken out for per session checks? I just printed my stub and noticed the city isn't taking federal taxes out of those.... Wtf?
I have the same issue with per session. Sucks come tax time if you work alot.
City is saying it's not an issue and just deal with it
I have the same problem with my per-session checks. Federal and State taxes were not withheld from several of my per-session checks since the beginning of the year. I tried to contact HR Connect and could not reach a representative. My payroll secretary is on leave.
Such a shit show. Some teachers have zero taken out for entire year.. Some every other pay check, some are ok. It's one big cluster bomb that they have no idea how to solve
You can add a certain amount of taxes per pay check on your regular pay. If you estimate how much per session you might work for the year you can figure out how much to add. Or just owe a bunch at the end of the year and hope you don't reach the penalty threshold and have to pay a fine.
DOE needs to fix the payroll issues and bring us to the modern times of multiple direct deposits and other improvements found everywhere else. We should be able to pull our record with car usage etc... real time.
Ya it's the employers responsibility to tax taxes from employees.. I shouldn't have to change my withholdings to guess how much should be taken out of all my extra checks. It's crazy how this hasn't been addressed before.
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