NYC schools chief says parents don’t care about class size as he battles against state mandate

New York City Schools Chancellor David Banks claimed Tuesday that parents don’t care if classrooms are overcrowded, as he argued against a billion-dollar-plus state mandate to reduce their size.

Banks testified at a public hearing in Albany in which he asked legislators to adjust the formula used to fund schools around the state so that the Big Apple can fund the smaller-class-size mandate.`

Shortly before, Banks spoke at a Police Athletic League luncheon in Manhattan along with billionaire businessman and Harlem native John Catsimatidis.

Both he and Catsimatidis drew on their shared experience through the city’s public-school system, saying they grew up in “overcrowded” classrooms and turned out more than fine.

Banks noted that according to the state’s guidelines, classes at Manhattan’s prestigious Stuyvesant High School are “overcrowded” — yet “everyone is doing extraordinarily well.

“And the parents are saying to us, ‘Whatever you do, to meet this law, do not cut off the enrollment number. Don’t lower the enrollment number. We don’t care that it’s overcrowded,’ ” he said.

“But what is better than class sizes is a high-quality teacher, because I can give you a class with 15 kids, but if you have a mediocre teacher, you’re going to get mediocre results,” Banks said.

“But with a phenomenal teacher, everybody learns. I grew up in classes that were packed.”

Banks said he does understand the reasoning for reducing class sizes.

“Science tells us smaller class sizes are good,” he said — before ranting about the costs of executing the state’s mandate. 

“It’s going to cost hundreds of millions of dollars from construction of capital, plus to build more buildings and expand more classrooms,” he said of reducing class sizes in the city.

“And we’d have to hire at least another 10,000 to 12,000 more teachers in order to be in compliance with this law — which the Independent Budget Office estimated would add another $1.4 [billion] to $1.9 billion more that we’re going to need.

“So the financial implications are real.”

Earlier this year, Albany gave city schools the ability to expand their capital plans by $2 billion to increase and renovate school facilities.

State Sen. John Liu (D-Queens), who was instrumental in securing the $2 billion capital-plan move, criticized Banks for not using increases in state school aid over the past few years to begin implementing the looming class-size requirements.

“They spent the state aid on other things that they prioritize, which I’m not saying those are bad things, but the foundation aid formula and the mandate that the foundation formula funds should be met first,” Liu told The Post.

“I’ll fight right alongside them to get more state funding, but calling the class-size-reduction responsibility an unfunded mandate and hemming and hawing at every turn and saying they can’t do it and they won’t do it, it’s not going to do them and in turn our schoolkids [any good] in due course,” he added.

Gov. Kathy Hochul first floated changes to the schools funding formula in her state budget proposal this year, but she agreed to ditch major revisions this time, around opting to punt the issue to next year’s budget.

Tuesday’s hearing was the first in several being conducted by the Rockefeller Institute, which was contracted by the state to make recommendations about the foundation aid formula ahead what is bound to be a bruising fight in next year’s budget negotiations.