NYC public schools' class size reduction will likely be delayed by 2 years, state senator says
New York City's attempt to reduce school class sizes will likely be pushed back for two years to help the city save money, hire more teachers and find the space, the head of the Senate Committee on City Education told CBS News New York political reporter Marcia Kramer.
Appearing Sunday on "The Point with Marcia Kramer," State Sen. John Liu of Queens said the reality is that the city just isn't ready to guarantee that 80% of the classes have no more that 20 to 25 students by next fall, and the deadline should be extended for two more years.
Liu blames the Adams administration.
"I wish the previous administration had gotten us to the goals much quicker, but unfortunately ... they kept complaining about the law instead of doing something about it," he said.
Liu said they didn't build the schools or hire enough teachers, adding, "It's not rocket science."
Reducing NYC class sizes
Mayor Zohran Mamdani campaigned on this issue, so some of his supporters may not be happy about Liu's declaration.
"He did inherit a very difficult task, and so rather than having potentially a chaotic roll into this, into full compliance, I think it's reasonable to have a 70, 80, 90, 100% compliance, so long as they are able to produce a very coherent plan."
Liu said, plainly, the previous administration didn't build enough schools or hire enough teachers to meet the deadline.
"It's not rocket science. In order to alleviate the overcrowding in New York City public school classrooms, we need more teachers and we need more classrooms," he said. "Chancellor [Kamar] Samuels has actually done a really good job to begin to develop this classroom buildout plan. We're waiting for the plan before we go ahead and change the law for the timetable."
Mayoral control of NYC schools
Meanwhile, Mamdani is also seeking to extend mayoral control of the schools, even though he said he wanted to eliminate mayoral control of the school system during the campaign.
According to Liu, it's unlikely the Legislature will accept Gov. Kathy Hochul's proposed four-year extension because "it's too long for an unproven administration."
"It's not going to happen ... I think it's going to be two years, plus or minus one," he said. "We want to see that [Mamdani's] administration can deliver results for our public schools, and that includes coming in compliance with class-size law. It also requires that our schools deliver better results for our students."
Watch Liu's full interview on "The Point with Marcia Kramer" in the video player above. Click here to watch the full episode that aired on CBS News New York.
