Dear Commons Community,
My colleague, David Bloomfield, was quoted extensively in a piece yesterday in ChalkBeat outlining the education agenda for New York in 2025. School funding, cellphone ban, class size, and Trump’s financial policies top the list. Below is the article.
David offers good insights.
Tony
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School funding, cellphone ban, class size, Trump: Education issues Albany could tackle in 2025
By Julian Shen-Berro
January 2, 2025, 2:48pm EST
Albany’s next legislative session kicks off this month with several key question marks for education policy.
On the state level, there’s an ongoing debate over how to update the school funding formula, which sends roughly $24.9 billion to school districts — including more than $9.5 billion to New York City schools. Meanwhile, as Donald Trump prepares for his second term as president, his education stance has some New Yorkers worried about the future of federal aid and other school-related policies.
And while both of these issues could hold major repercussions for New York City, many students and families might be paying closer attention to something else that could affect their day-to-day experiences: Gov. Kathy Hochul is eyeing statewide legislative action to restrict students’ cellphone access in schools.
Also on the horizon: Expect discussion about the city’s efforts to meet a state mandate capping class sizes, the continued fight over admissions to specialized high schools, and more.
Here’s a look at some of the biggest education issues lawmakers could tackle in 2025:
Albany considers restricting cellphone use in schools
For months, Hochul has remained deeply concerned over the impact of student cellphone use in schools. The governor has previously stated the devices should not be available to students during school hours, citing the harmful mental health effects of social media and other online platforms.
Hochul has signaled that she will look to implement a statewide policy during the next legislative session.
Though the city’s Education Department seemed poised to implement a citywide ban of its own over the summer, Mayor Eric Adams later pumped the brakes on that plan. At a press conference last month, Adams indicated the city would comply with a statewide mandate.
In Albany, lawmakers are awaiting the details of the governor’s proposal
State Sen. Shelley Mayer, a Democrat who chairs the Senate’s general education committee, said there’s conceptual support in Albany for limiting student cell phone use. But she added, “We want these things to be determined at a local level, or at least to have input at a local level.”
David Bloomfield, a professor of education, law, and public policy at Brooklyn College and the CUNY Graduate Center, expects any statewide policy to leave decisions in the hands of school districts — potentially requiring that all school districts develop plans to address cellphone use, but stopping short of dictating how those plans work.
“I fully expect the Adams administration to do what it has been doing, which is to say, in turn, schools should come up with their own plans,” he said.
Debate over how to update NY’s school funding formula continues
Lawmakers and observers expect discussions over how to revise the Foundation Aid formula to play a major role in the state budget process.
That formula, first implemented in 2007, relies on decades-old data to calculate district needs, such as using poverty figures from the 2000 census. Though most agree the formula is in dire need of updates, a recent report offering 20 recommendations spurred mixed reactions among advocates and lawmakers.
State Sen. John Liu, a Queens Democrat who chairs the Senate’s New York City education committee, said the report included helpful suggestions. Still, it didn’t address several key issues that impact New York City, like the growing population of students in temporary housing, he said.
“The report gives us good ideas and some of the logic behind possible changes,” Liu said. “But it doesn’t constrain us in any way in terms of determining what the new state budget is going to be and how much will be invested in education.”
Mayer said discussions over the formula will begin with the release of the governor’s budget proposal later this month. She added that lawmakers will want to see the district-level impacts of any proposed changes to the formula.
Trump’s return sparks fears about funding cuts
In New York City and in Albany, Trump’s return to the White House has set lawmakers and education advocates on edge — as his policies could potentially weaken federal support for schools and harm local immigrant communities.
The president-elect has vowed to get rid of the U.S. Department of Education, enact mass deportations, and slash federal funding.
Bloomfield believes the biggest threat to New York City schools lies in potential federal funding cuts — whether directly related to education or not.
“Education funding directly could be cut,” he said. “But if transportation funding is cut, or other areas of massive federal aid, the budget may have to adjust away from education to fill other gaps.”
NeQuan McLean, president of the city’s District 16 Community Education Council, has been working to raise alarm over potential cuts to Title I funding, which provide city schools with millions in federal dollars meant to support students from low-income backgrounds.
Part of the issue, McLean added, is a lack of accounting of what city schools use the federal funding for — meaning the full extent of potential cuts remains unclear.
“What does that mean for New York State?” he said. “What does that look like for districts that really rely on this money?”
Mayer is concerned about the conservative Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 — widely seen as a blueprint for the Trump administration — that calls for Title I funding to be turned into vouchers and then phased out over time, among other changes.
“We have Republicans from New York, and we have to impress upon them that to carry through with the Project 2025 agenda would be absolutely devastating for the kids of New York City,” she said.
Mayer added she’s concerned about the Trump administration’s plans to ramp up deportations. It’s a fear shared among local families and educators, as New York City’s schools are home to thousands of asylum-seeking and other migrant students.
“In the first Trump presidency, some of these parents just said, ‘I’m not willing to take the chance of ICE coming and pulling my kid at school,’” Mayer said. “We as a community need to assure parents that school is a safe place.”
NYC must construct more school buildings, lawmaker says
New York City is approaching its first major test in meeting a state law mandating smaller class sizes, with 60% of classrooms required to be in compliance by September 2025.
That law — which caps class sizes at 20 for kindergarten to third grade, 23 for fourth to eighth grade, and 25 for high school — will require a historic reduction in class sizes across the school system. Around 40% of the city’s classes were below the caps as of last year.
Liu said he’s open to conversations with the city about providing further resources. But he wants to see a more substantial effort by the city in 2025 toward meeting the mandate — including retrofitting additional school building spaces into classrooms, constructing additional classrooms where space exists on school campuses, and developing new school buildings.
Mayoral control, SHSAT, and other issues could resurface
Other issues that have previously taken center stage could also reemerge in 2025.
Though the current mayoral control deal will last until 2026, the city’s polarizing school governance structure could spark some conversations this year.
Liu said that legislative action about the issue was “always a possibility.”
To Bloomfield, recent federal charges against Adams and the departure of many top city officials may offer further fuel to critics of the current system.
Meanwhile, he anticipates debates over the Specialized High School Admissions Test — a standardized exam that acts as the sole metric of admission to the city’s prestigious specialized high schools, like Stuyvesant and Bronx Science — could resurface this year.
It’s a polarizing issue that has remained dormant in recent years. But as the city’s Panel for Educational Policy considered a new contract for a computer-based version of the exam last month, some members signaled they want to see reforms to the admissions system.
“It resurrects a previously dead issue,” Bloomfield said. “It’s unlikely to change things, but there’s an opening that didn’t exist a month ago.”
Award-winning editorial cartoonist Ann Telnaes left her position at the Washington Post after the paper rejected the editorial cartoon idea she submitted featuring several tech and media executives bowing down to Donald Trump.
