| Releases & Statements
New Report of School Crowding and Construction Reveals Progress, Projections and Problems
(Queens, NY, November 7, 2002) – Standing in front of IS 73, in the most crowded school district in the city, Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum released a report on school overcrowding that details a growing crowding crisis in middle schools and high schools across the city. The report analyzes how recent budget cuts and faulty planning could impact future classroom crowding, particularly in high schools of Queens and the Bronx.
“We have a continued school overcrowding crisis and a budget crisis on our hands. However, we must minimize their impact on our children,” said Betsy Gotbaum. “Every penny counts. Now, more than ever, we must be wise about school construction. We have to bring down costs of construction and build only where seats are most needed.”
The Public Advocate commended Chancellor Joel Klein for acknowledging the need to reorganize the school construction process: “This is a great step in bringing down the outrageous costs we were paying for building new classrooms.” The report also identifies some progress made in creating new classrooms: due to new construction, seat shortages in overcrowded districts were reduced by nearly 6,000 seats.
The Department of Education’s 2002 projections show that there is still a need for an additional 29,325 school seats in crowded districts. Recent budget cuts have greatly dampened the outlook for reducing school overcrowding. According to a report by the Independent Budget Office (IBO) also released today, the Department of Education’s recent amendments to its capital plan have deferred construction of much-needed 18,493 seats.
Worsening the prognosis for overcrowded districts, according to data contained in the Public Advocate’s report, is the creation of additional seats in non-overcrowded districts. Of the 10,456 seats currently under construction, 6,601 seats are in districts that are not currently projected to be overcrowded. This year, 2,637 of 12,303 – or 21 percent – of new seats created were in districts that are not overcrowded.
“Unfortunately, we can only afford to build a limited number of schools,” said Gotbaum. “We must build first in the most overcrowded districts, and where overcrowding is projected to be worst. The numbers show that this is not always happening.” The report acknowledges that some, but not all, of the new seats created in non-overcrowding districts are the result of moving administrative staff out of the building or building in overcrowded areas of a non-overcrowded district, “But every seat counts. We should not build seats in non-overcrowded areas at the expense of creating seats in overcrowded areas,” continued Gotbaum.
High school children appear to be the hardest hit by the lack of learning space. Bronx high school crowding will double by 2006: the current 5,985 seat shortage is expected to balloon to 10,466 and the construction of only three high schools is planned. Staten Island, the only borough with no overcrowding, is projected to have the largest percentage growth in high school attendance – a 13.4 percent increase between 2001 and 2006, which will leave the borough short 1,900 seats.
Queens, though, has by far the most overcrowded high schools of any of the boroughs. Projected 2002 seat shortage is up from last years 11,151 shortage to 12,553. And even if all 13 planned high schools are built, there would still be an approximate 1,700 seat shortage.
The Public Advocate’s report calls for:
1.DOE should immediately establish its priorities for building new schools. DOE must guarantee that new seats are first built in areas of the city suffering from the most chronic overcrowding.
2. DOE must begin planning for its new five year Capital Plan. As part of its planning process, DOE must include: A plan to quantify the space needs for all educational initiatives it intends to implement; a plan to return overcrowded schools to normalcy by eliminating all temporary buildings and trailers, to return gyms, art rooms, libraries, resource rooms and offices to their original intended uses.
3. No Delays of new schools that have funding for construction.
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