NEW YORK, NY July 27, 2005 —City Council Speaker and mayoral hopeful Gifford Miller says education advocates have gathered enough signatures to put a referendum on the November ballot to require reduced class sizes in city schools. The issue is turning into the lynchpin in his campaign for mayor. WNYC's Fred Mogul has more.

A petition calling for smaller class sizes already has 70,000 signatures, but needs the Council's approval to make it on the general election ballot.

Mayor Bloomberg opposes the referendum, saying it would be impossible to comply with. He argues the city doesn't have enough space for smaller classes and already is doing everything it can to add new rooms and buildings.

Miller has more money than the other would-be Democratic nominees but lags behind in polls so far, and he is trying to gain the support of the teachers union, who sent representatives to his news conference yesterday.

Having already collected enough petitions to run in the Democratic primary in September, he now is gathering more signatures to create what amounts to a party with its own line in the Election Booth. The party is to be called "Smaller Class Sizes," and Miller would be its only candidate.