Schools Chancellor David Banks went hat in hand to Albany on Thursday to beg lawmakers for additional cash to help the city comply with the new state-enforced class size mandate .
The city Department of Education boss warned that some of the Big Apple’s successful school programs were at risk of being on the chopping block in the coming years if more “help and support” wasn’t offered up to cover the costly class size law.
“We don’t want to be in a position where we’ve got to reduce our pre-K programs, because we got to make sure that we comply with this class size law,” Banks testified at Thursday’s state legislative budget hearing.
Banks acknowledged the city had already reduced classrooms to comply with the class size law for the next two years — but projected “trade-offs” for the years to come.
“Other good programs that we have, we might not be able to continue, because we will have to make sure that we comply with this law and the priority that is this law,” the DOE boss later told reporters.