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NEW YORK, NY July 06, 2007 —The city's education department has come up with a plan to spend another billion dollars in state and local funds this year. A good part of that will go toward reducing class sizes. WNYC's Beth Fertig has more.

The extra funds were included in the new state budget that began this month, after parents and education advocates won a landmark lawsuit finding the state had shortchanged city schools. Under the new formula, the city is required set aside $228 million to increase student achievement among its neediest kids.

Chancellor Joel Klein is now proposing to spend about half of those dollars to reduce class sizes. This would pay for 1300 teachers and lower the average class size to fewer than 21 students in grades K to 3 - a reduction of about 1.5%. Older grades would average 25 kids.

The city expects a bigger drop in class sizes in low performing schools. The group that filed the original lawsuit said the plan lacks specifics for how it will take effect in each school. Public hearings will be held in all 5 boroughs next week for parents. For WNYC, I'm Beth Fertig.