On Tuesday June 11 at 12 noon at City Hall, NYC Kids PAC co-sponsored a rally to urge the city to lower class size.

More than than one hundred parents, students, advocates, elected officials and union members gathered on the steps of City Hall to urge the NYC Department of Education and the Mayor to allocate specific funding in next year’s budget towards reducing class size.

The rally was also co-sponsored by Class Size Matters, the UFT, Local 372, the Education Council Consortium, and others. Among the elected officials who spoke eloquently about the need for the Mayor and Chancellor to reduce class size were Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer, Eduardo Hernandez of NYC Kids PAC, Leonie Haimson of Class Size Matters, City Council Education Chair Mark Treyger, Council Majority Leader Laurie Cumbo, and Council Members Adrienne Adams, Inez Barron, Barry Grodenchik, and Brad Lander.

Even though the state’s highest court concluded in 2003 that NYC public school classes were too large to provide students with their constitutional right to a sound basic education, class sizes have actually increased since then, especially in the early grades, where the research is strongest that smaller classes leads to higher achievement and better student outcomes all the way through college and beyond.

Among the other speakers on behalf of the need to fund for smaller classes were Kenneth Cohen Regional Director of the NAACP, Maria Bautista of AQE, Benny Lin of the Parent-Child Relationship Association, Shino Tanikawa, co-chair of the Education Council Consortium, Anthony Harmon of the UFT, Donald Nesbit of Local 372 of DC 37,   Lina Rosario, a 6th grade student in Sunset Park, Kathy Park of Citizen Squirrel and many others.

Naila, Isaac, Fatima, Leonie, Eduardo, Margaret, Andy, Brooke, Karen, Shino and Tesa for Kids PAC