Grin and bear it.
In an apparent effort to turn the other cheek after being slapped around by Albany legislators who awarded him just a two-year extension of control over the city’s schools, with new strings attached, Mayor Eric Adams Friday looked to the silver linings in the new deal.
“While there is more work to do to deliver on the priorities New Yorkers are asking for, we are optimistic that there is a way forward on key elements, including ensuring we achieve the shared goal of smaller class sizes without forcing the city into a fiscal crisis and impacting programs for our most vulnerable students,” Adams said, referring to class size legislation that officials said could cost New York City hundreds of millions of dollars.
Adams and his Schools Chancellor David Banks had spent the days leading up to the bill’s passage Thursday warning of its fiscal impact on other education programs, from school safety measures to dyslexia screenings.
“I want to thank the Governor and my colleagues in Albany for their partnership through this session,” Adams added.
If signed into law by Gov. Kathy Hochul, the bill would cap kindergarten through third grade classes at 20 students; fourth through eighth grade at 23 students; and high school at 25 students within the next five years.
Adams will be due in Albany to work with many of the same legislators sooner than he previously wanted when his control over the city schools — which also passed both chambers just past midnight Friday — sunsets in just two years.
He and Hochul had previously lobbied for three to four more years of what Adams’ calls “mayoral accountability” over the public school system.
The measure passed the state Senate by a relatively small margin, 39-24 — with some legislators voting down the bill because it gave Adams’ too much power, while others said the proposal did not give him enough years to maintain stability. An identical bill in the Assembly passed in a landslide, 145-4.
Adams fumed earlier this week about state lawmakers preventing him from improving the schools, calling them “professional naysayers” who are not on “Team New York.”
He warned of cuts that would “harm our most vulnerable students in our highest need communities” — including the loss of mental health professionals, art programs and school trips, tutoring, and supports for students with disabilities.
Fiscal watchdogs echoed those concerns, while advocates for reduced class sizes said more manageable classrooms could bolster Adams’ priorities and children’s education.
“This class size bill is, in fact, a funded mandate,” said State Sen. John Liu, who heads the committee on New York City education and sponsored the bill, in a statement on Friday, “and it is a huge victory for NYC school kids that will finally fulfill the long-overdue constitutional duty of providing students with a sound, basic education.”
Liu cited funds from a 2006 court ruling that mandated the state increase its school aid. Those dollars will be fully phased in by April 2023, Liu said, by when the city will get an additional $1.6 billion annually for smaller class sizes and better educational outcomes.
The Department of Education told The Post on Friday it expects that number to be closer to $1.1 billion each year if the state follows through on the historic deal.
The funds that have been phased in so far, supplemented by federal stimulus dollars, go into a school funding formula that, though flawed, lets principals spend the money as they see fit — including hiring teachers to decrease class sizes, officials said.