A New School Year, and a More Crowded One
Wednesday, September 07, 2011 - 05:10 PM
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(Stephen Nessen/WNYC)
The million-plus students returning to the city's public schools Thursday can count on at least one thing: more crowded classrooms. According to Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott, classrooms will swell by an average of 1.5 students, but he argued that the impact would be minimal.
"To me it's important to have a great teacher in front of the classroom," Walcott said, "and a great teacher can educate the class no matter how large or small the class size is."
Walcott said the final numbers on class sizes would not be available until October 31. But additional crowding was a direct result of budget cuts, with individual schools losing an average of 2.4 percent of their city funds — the fifth consecutive year of school budget cuts.
According to schools officials, 1,940 teachers continued to look for work as of August 19, and constitute what is known as the Absent Teacher Reserve, or ATR. That figure is about the same as it was a year ago.
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