{"id":251056,"date":"2026-06-01T17:08:15","date_gmt":"2026-06-01T17:08:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/251056\/"},"modified":"2026-06-01T17:08:15","modified_gmt":"2026-06-01T17:08:15","slug":"ny-lawmakers-agree-to-push-back-smaller-class-sizes-in-nyc-saving-mamdani-500-million-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/251056\/","title":{"rendered":"NY lawmakers agree to push back smaller class sizes in NYC, saving Mamdani $500 million"},"content":{"rendered":"

State lawmakers in Albany are set to give New York City an additional two years to implement a law mandating smaller class sizes<\/a>, an extension that will help Mayor Mamdani balance the city\u2019s budget by saving the school system more than $500 million.<\/a><\/p>\n

The 2022 state law phases in new class sizes caps between 20 and 25 students, depending on grade level. It only applies to New York City. The delay will give the city until September 2030 to fully implement the law, according to a bill<\/a> introduced Monday by State Sen. John Liu (D-Queens), chair of the NYC education committee. Previously, the deadline was fall 2028.<\/p>\n

The legislation is critical for Mamdani, who was banking on a delay to help close the city\u2019s multibillion-dollar budget gap. Budget documents released last month showed the city expected to save $508 million from the extension next fiscal year, and $733 million the following year.<\/p>\n

The measure was expected to be included in the final state budget<\/a>, which was signed into law last week nearly two weeks after the statutory deadline. But it was noticeably absent from the financial plan after the Mamdani administration failed to provide the stated legislative language to amend the law in time for the state budget\u2019s passage, the Daily News reported.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe legal timetable will be extended by two years, empowering the Mamdani administration to at long last bring all NYC class sizes down to state and national norms of teacher-student ratios,\u201d Liu said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis amendment to state law is respondent to clear and accountable teacher recruitment and classroom construction plans developed by the Mamdani administration to be fulfilled within the mayor\u2019s current term of office.\u201d<\/p>\n

The News has reached out to City Hall, New York City Public Schools, and the United Federation of Teachers for comment and copies of those plans. The deal was first reported by Politico<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As part of the extension, the city\u2019s school system will have more time to hit annual milestones leading up to the final deadline<\/a>. This fall, 70% of classrooms have to comply with the caps, instead of 80% as currently required, according to the bill. An additional 10% of classes, rather than an original 20%, must come into compliance each year until the phase-in is complete.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was negotiated between the City of New York and the teachers union about a requirement that was put in law a few years ago to reduce the class sizes, but it is an enormous expense annually,\u201d Gov. Hochul said at a news conference on New York\u2019s school cellphone ban in Bushwick, Brooklyn.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis just gives them some more breathing room to roll out the cost of it, and they expect to save about half a billion dollars a year to do this. So, they\u2019ll get to the right place. And I know class sizes are already shrinking in some areas, so that effect is already ongoing. But this was a budget issue that the city asked the teachers for relief from.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mamdani at a recent news conference<\/a> suggested his administration was \u201cdistinct\u201d from that of ex-Mayor Eric Adams, who spent most of his term in office pushing back against the cost of the mandate without additional support from Albany.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe actually want to fulfill this,\u201d Mamdani said last Thursday in Astoria, \u201cand ensure that the spirit of the law is one that we are delivering on \u2014 where we have students who have an easier time learning in our classrooms, and teachers who have an easier time teaching in our classrooms.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"State lawmakers in Albany are set to give New York City an additional two years to implement a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":251057,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[22690,2069,36610,9,24,56,63,65,64,62913],"class_list":["post-251056","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-class-sizes","tag-john-liu","tag-mayor-mamdani","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-news","tag-state-lawmakers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251056","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=251056"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251056\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/251057"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=251056"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=251056"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=251056"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}