New York City's public school system faces a key decision involving class size.

Since 2022, New York City has been under a state law mandate to make classes smaller at city schools. About 60% of the work has been done. By Saturday, the city needs to decide whether it plans to be 80% compliant by next year, or pause the work. 

Mandate will have unintended consequences, advocate says

"There has never been a mandate like this in any state across the country," said Evan Stone, of Educators for Excellence.

Stone is advocating for a pause. He says that, while smaller classes are important, Educators for Excellence research suggests getting to 100% compliance would lead to resources being taken away from the schools that need them most.

"The evidence is clear. Those classrooms are in our higher-income communities. It would move teachers from harder-to-staff schools in low-income communities to wealthier communities," Stone said. 

$1 billion class size budget could potentially be redeployed

The decision needs to be made before Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani takes office, but it's an equality issue that would seem to align with what Mamdani campaigned on. A pause would give his administration the chance to use the $1 billion class size budget for other things, such as universal child care, a pillar of his campaign estimated to cost around $6 billion per year.

Mamdani visited a Brooklyn child care center on Thursday.

"In a single year it was measured that our economy paid the cost of about $23 billion in the absence of affordable child care. On the question about timeline and phases, these are the conversations we're having over the course of this transition," Mamdani said.

It's also not clear if Mamdani will be consulted on the deadline, or if he would consider using the class size money to help fund child care.

Mamdani's staff did not take CBS News New York's questions Thursday, or respond to multiple requests for comment.

We have also reached out to City Hall and are awaiting its remarks.