Class Sizes Rise, Mostly Due to Budget Cuts

Otterman, S. (2009). Class Sizes Rise, Mostly Due to Budget Cuts. New York Times. pp A30.

This article discusses the what New York City has experienced in the last year of the rise in class size. On average class size has only increased by one student per class. High school English classes increased from 24.7 students to 26.4 students and high school science classes increased from 26.1 and 27.4. The other grade that has seen the greatest lift in enrollment is kindergarten. “This is very sad since most experts believe that these are the two most important grades to keep class size.” The main increase in class size was due to budget cuts. With the increase in class size and the budget cuts there were 1,650 less teaching positions this year than the year before. The city had been decreasing class size regularly over the past decade. The ironic part of the report was that the increase occurred the same year that the state gave millions of dollars for a program called Contracts of Excellence, which was supposed to reduce class size.