Mamdani Campaigned on Fulfilling NYC’s Class Size Mandate

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Mamdani campaigned on fulfilling NYC’s class size mandate. So why is he pushing for a delay?

On the campaign trail, Mayor Zohran Mamdani vowed to take a state mandate to slash class sizes seriously, saying it “will transform our students’ ability to learn.”

“The question of compliance has too often been a negotiation,” Mamdani said on the first day of school in September.

Now, the Mamdani administration is seeking to do just that: negotiate with lawmakers in Albany to give the city more time to comply.

Some of the class size law’s key backers, including its legislative sponsor, seem willing to play ball. State Sen. John Liu, who sponsored the class size law, said he is open to allowing the city to reach full compliance over the next four years instead of the legally required two.

A deal to extend the class size law may come as part of the state budget — and lawmakers could use it as leverage as they simultaneously debate whether to extend Mamdani’s control of the school system, which expires at the end of June. (The state budget, which was due Wednesday, is delayed, and it’s unclear exactly when it will be finalized.)

On the campaign trail, Mamdani said it was “critical” to deliver smaller classes across the system. Here’s why as mayor he’s now pushing for an extension on the class size law.

Next year’s class size reduction target may be all but impossible

Under the law, 80% of the city’s public school classrooms must not exceed 20-25 students (depending on the grade level) by this coming school year. All schools must meet the caps by the 2027-28 school year. That goal may be out of reach: Schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels recently told City Council members it would be “very difficult” to hit 80% compliance by September.

The city was only able to hit this year’s 60% benchmark by exempting thousands of classes from the law, despite spending hundreds of millions hiring more teachers and helping schools reconfigure space.

Failing to meet the benchmarks has big consequences. The law includes a provision that calls for hundreds of millions in state funding cuts if the city does not comply. Even the law’s biggest supporters, however, likely want to avoid that outcome.

A delay gives Mamdani some (temporary) budget relief

Mamdani is looking for all the savings he can to close a $5.4 billion budget gap by the city’s July 1 budget deadline. The mayor is banking on a delay of the class size law to help balance the city’s budget, the New York Times reported last week. (A City Hall spokesperson did not respond to questions about the mayor’s push for a delay.)

But having more time to comply with the law might only bring a temporary reprieve. Liu has floated requiring the city to bring 70% of classrooms into compliance this coming September — instead of 80% — with an additional 10% in each of the three following school years.

The state lawmaker pushed back against any move by the Mamdani administration to use the delay to save money.

“Adjustments in the timeline are not meant to provide fiscal relief,” Liu told Chalkbeat, noting that any extension is contingent on the city submitting more detailed plans about how they plan to comply with the law. The Mamdani administration deserves more time to comply because the city is “behind the curve due to the inactions of the previous administration,” Liu added.

The city’s teachers union, a key backer of the class size mandate, said they want to see a clearer plan from the Education Department to build more classroom space before supporting changes to the law. “Only when a real plan and a clear timeline are in place — not the usual School Construction [Authority] smoke and mirrors — would we have the information necessary to consider whether any amendments are needed,” United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew said in a statement.

The mayor’s preliminary budget includes $543 million in additional city funding to reduce class sizes next fiscal year and $943 million in each of the three fiscal years after that — spending that could be pushed back if the legislature changes the timeline for implementing class size reductions. (City officials have previously projected the cost of fully implementing the law could be up to $1.7 billion a year for additional teachers with billions more in school construction costs on top of that.)

In its response to Mamdani’s preliminary budget, City Council indicated the city should convince state lawmakers to pony up for funding to comply with the law, relieving the city of some costs. The state assembly proposed sending the city $600 million to shrink classes, but it’s unclear if that will be included in the final state budget deal.

But in the mayor’s response criticizing the City Council’s plan, he accused them of seeking a delay to the class size law as their sole request from Albany — an ask that does not appear in the council’s budget proposal. Some observers noted that it’s a bizarre critique coming from Mamdani.

“Isn’t [Mamdani] also asking the state for more time to lower class size?” Leonie Haimson, the executive director of the advocacy group Class Size Matters, wrote on X.

A Mamdani spokesperson did not respond to questions about his false characterization of the council’s budget response.

City may want more time to come up with a comprehensive plan to shrink classes

Some of the law’s backers have urged the city to come up with more aggressive plans to build new classrooms for crowded schools that don’t have room to comply with the law.

But there are other solutions the city could use in some cases that would be far less expensive and take advantage of empty seats elsewhere: capping enrollment on crowded campuses or rezonings.

Samuels has also signaled he wants to prioritize using the city’s existing buildings before turning to school construction, though moves to cap enrollment on popular campuses would likely face pushback from families.

“The time in theory gives [Mamdani] the opportunity to get creative about space utilization [and] enrollment,” said Jonathan Collins, a political science and education professor at Columbia University’s Teachers College and a member of the city’s Panel for Educational Policy.

A delay could also give the city more time to grapple with one of the law’s core equity challenges: It requires significant new spending at relatively more affluent schools, where class sizes tend to be bigger, while more high-poverty schools already meet the caps.

A recent report from the Urban Institute, a think tank, found that the city’s lowest-poverty schools have received more funding to reduce class sizes than the city’s highest-poverty schools.

Alex Zimmerman is a senior reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.