By Alex Christodoulides
“For many years, New York City kids have been shortchanged on education,” Lancman said. New York state has some of the most crowded public school classrooms in the country and the largest number of students per class anywhere in the state, he said. He is proposing that Gov. Eliot Spitzer amend his spending bill to ensure that New York City use at least 25 percent of the $13 billion allocated to the city to lower class sizes.”Gov. Spitzer's historic budget proposal has effectively ended the debate about when New York City will get its fair share of state education money, and opened a new one on how that money should be spent. As parents, teachers, taxpayers and legislators, we say it must be spent on lowering class sizes,” Lancman said.Weingarten called their demands a two-step process.”The first was to secure $13 billion to build thousands of classrooms in overcrowded New York City public schools. The second is to actually lower class sizes,” she said.”From 2002 to 2005, the city got money to reduce class sizes in 1,500 classrooms,” but the money was often not used where and how it would have been most beneficial, Weingarten said.She believes that even without constructing new school buildings, the crunch can be alleviated. She pointed at the building behind her as an example of how dire the situation is, saying Francis Lewis HS is at almost 200 percent capacity.”People say, 'You just can't do it,' but there are ways. You can have two teachers in each classroom, for instance,” Weingarten said.Reach reporter Alex Christodoulides by e-mail at news@timesledger.com or by phone at 718-229-0300, Ext. 155.
