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    Fact Sheet On Cap Plan Updated 5.29.15

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    CSM
    According to an audit, over one third of NYC public schools are overcrowded, with nearly half a million students attending severely overcrowded schools. The city's current school construction plan will only meet less than half of the need given enrollment projections. Class Size Matters recommends doubling the number of new school seats in the capital plan to adequately address current and projected overcrowding at a cost of $125 million per year, which is less than what the DOE planned to pay annually for a cancelled computer consulting contract. They also recommend forming an independent commission to improve the inefficient school siting process.

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    Fact Sheet On Cap Plan Updated 5.29.15

    Uploaded by

    CSM
    584 views1 page
    According to an audit, over one third of NYC public schools are overcrowded, with nearly half a million students attending severely overcrowded schools. The city's current school construction plan will only meet less than half of the need given enrollment projections. Class Size Matters recommends doubling the number of new school seats in the capital plan to adequately address current and projected overcrowding at a cost of $125 million per year, which is less than what the DOE planned to pay annually for a cancelled computer consulting contract. They also recommend forming an independent commission to improve the inefficient school siting process.

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    Fact Sheet on Cap Plan Updated 5.29.15

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    Fact Sheet on Cap Plan Updated 5.29.15

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    According to an audit, over one third of NYC public schools are overcrowded, with nearly half a million students attending severely overcrowded schools. The city's current school construction plan will only meet less than half of the need given enrollment projections. Class Size Matters recommends doubling the number of new school seats in the capital plan to adequately address current and projected overcrowding at a cost of $125 million per year, which is less than what the DOE planned to pay annually for a cancelled computer consulting contract. They also recommend forming an independent commission to improve the inefficient school siting process.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    584 views1 page

    Fact Sheet On Cap Plan Updated 5.29.15

    Uploaded by

    CSM
    According to an audit, over one third of NYC public schools are overcrowded, with nearly half a million students attending severely overcrowded schools. The city's current school construction plan will only meet less than half of the need given enrollment projections. Class Size Matters recommends doubling the number of new school seats in the capital plan to adequately address current and projected overcrowding at a cost of $125 million per year, which is less than what the DOE planned to pay annually for a cancelled computer consulting contract. They also recommend forming an independent commission to improve the inefficient school siting process.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
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    of 1

    The Problem:

    According to an audit from the NYC Comptroller, at least one third of public schools are overcrowded,
    without the city having any clear plan to deal with the problem. A third of the citys elementary schools
    are at least 138% of capacity. Nearly half a million students already attend schools that are severely
    overcrowded and the situation is getting worse.

    The current school construction capital plan with about 38,000 seats will meet less than half the need,
    given DOEs own data and their enrollment projections. NYC is the fastest growing large city in the
    country, according to the recent Census, and yet the city has no realistic proposal to address the
    growing student population.

    There is widespread consensus that the DOEs formula for estimating school utilization levels
    underestimates the actual level of overcrowding and the space needed to provide a quality education. A
    working group appointed by the Chancellor made suggestions in December to improve the accuracy of
    this formula, but their recommendations still have not been released.

    The well-documented result is that hundreds of schools have lost their cluster rooms; thousands of
    students are assigned to lunch as early as 10 a.m., and/or have no access to the gym. Many special
    needs students are forced to receive their services in hallways and/or closets rather than in dedicated
    spaces, and class sizes in the early grades have reached a 15-year high.

    The Mayors ambitious plan to build an additional 160,000 market-rate housing units, on top of 200,000
    affordable units over the next 10 years will create the need for even more school seats.

    Class Size Matters Recommendations:

    The DOE should double the number of new seats in the capital plan, which would more nearly achieve
    the goal of alleviating current overcrowding and accommodating projected enrollment growth.
    According to the Independent Budget office, this would cost $125 million per year, given that the state
    reimburses for half the cost.

    The DOE planned to pay $127 million per year at a total cost of more than $1.1B for nine years for a
    computer consulting company. That contract was later cancelled by the city after the media raised
    concerns about the fact that the company had been involved in a kickback scheme. Originally the
    contract was nearly twice that high, at a potential cost of more than $2 billion. For less than what the
    DOE was prepared to pay for this contract on an annual basis, the number of seats in the capital plan
    could be doubled and we could begin to meet the real needs of NYC public school students.

    The DOE should also form an independent commission to improve the planning process and efficiency in
    siting new schools, which now lags far behind private and public development efforts.

    Prepared by Leonie Haimson, Class Size Matters, May 2015.

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