Dear Commons Community,

Schools in New York City are becoming more congested, federal and state aid has dropped, and the number of students in “temporary housing situations,” including homeless shelters, has shot up, according to a report on the state of public education by the New York City Independent Budget Office (IBO). The IBO has issued a number of excellent and enlightening reports on the state of New York City’s public schools since its creation in 2009. This report is sixty plus pages and contains good information about the NYC public schools. For example:

“Nearly 450,000 students were enrolled in overcrowded buildings, defined as those at greater than 102.5 percent capacity, in the 2012-13 school year, the most recent covered by the report from the agency, the Independent Budget Office. The average class size is rising, too, particularly in the lower grades: The average elementary and middle school class had 25.5 children, up from 24.6 just two years before. This was true even as the total number of students in traditional and charter schools has hovered around 1.1 million for more than a decade, and as the city has created tens of thousands of new seats.”

Well-worth a read!

Tony