Mayor Eric Adams on Tuesday called on the powerful teachers union to step up and help boost hiring so New York City can comply with the state’s new class size mandates.
Hizzoner called out the American Federation of Teachers a day after Schools Superintendent David Banks claimed the Big Apple needed to triple its teacher hiring rate just to meet legal class size requirements.
“We need help from the UFT because we have a teacher shortage problem,” Adams said at a City Hall press conference when asked about the mission.
“We want the UFT to help us, and we want the everyday leaders to help us with how to attract people. We need to attract more teachers into the system. there is.”
The Big Apple city can manage to reduce classroom sizes to comply with the law over the next two years, but it still needs help to attract teachers, the mayor said.
“We’re not going to change anything. The law is the law,” Adams said. “We hope to partner with UFT and the faculty in recruiting these teachers.”
A DOE spokesperson told the Post that the city would need to hire about 8,000 more teachers to comply with the mandate, adding that it would need to hire about 4,000 teachers a year to keep staffing levels constant. He pointed out that he was hiring.
DOE officials added that hiring more teachers would cost the city between $1.2 billion and $1.8 billion annually.
Banks have repeatedly begged the city of Albany for additional cash to fund the expensive mission, saying it would put a strain on already strained school budgets.
“We are in the midst of a national teacher shortage, and to meet this legislation we would essentially have to triple the number of teacher hires,” Banks said in testimony Monday at a City Council Education Committee budget hearing. “There is,” he said.
DOE bigwigs have previously warned that the mandate could lead to the elimination of some school programs within years, and the city will need about $20 billion in capital improvements to create additional classroom space. He added that it was necessary.
The law, signed by Gov. Kathy Hochul in 2022, caps the number of students in kindergarten through third-grade classes at 20 students. From 4th grade to her 8th grade, he is 23, and in high school, he is 25.
To meet the requirements of the law, the city will ensure that 20% of the class meets the cap by the 2023-2024 school year and continually increase the percentage to meet 100% by the 2027-2028 school year. I need to go.
Asked about Hizzoner’s comments, UFT President Michael Mulgrew said in a statement: We are always looking for partners to help bring talented new teachers to New York City public schools. Our students deserve it. ”
Still, City Council Education Committee Chair Rita Joseph said it was the DOE’s responsibility to build a pipeline to hire more teachers, pushing back against the mayor’s request for UFT to help.
“There’s always a shortage. I’ve said many times that we need to create a pipeline to hire educators,” Joseph said at a City Hall news conference Tuesday.
Adams’ calls for more support for unions to attract more teachers come as he continues to clash with the powerful UFT over greater mayoral control over Albany public schools. It was uttered while I was there.
This also comes after the Adams administration signed a cushy five-year union contract with the UFT last year that gave teachers a 20% pay increase.
Additional reporting by Vaughn Golden
