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NEW YORK, NY September 07, 2005 —A new report finds city classes are getting smaller, at least in the lower grades.

REPORTER: The Independent Budget Office looked at kindergarten through third grade, only. It found the average class size last year was 21 point 3 students - compared to 21 point 6 the previous year. District 1 in Lower Manhattan had the smallest classes, with 18 students on average. But three districts in the Bronx, Brooklyn and Upper Manhattan were averaging almost 23 students. And about 16 percent of all kindergarten through third graders were attending classes with more than 25 students. The Independent Budget Office credits the overall reduction to state and federal funding, along with declining enrollment. But Democratic City Council Speaker Gifford Miller, who's made class size a theme of his Mayoral campaign, claims those factors should have made a bigger difference. For WNYC I'm Beth Fertig