*I’ve never been a public school student in my life, other than as a CUNY student. Take what I write here with a grain of salt. Catholic School, 14 years.*
First, I think the main issue isn’t the budget or arts in the school, or class sizes. To me, the main issue with schools is its value. Schools should be seen as more valuable in the eyes of students, teachers, and budgetmakers alike. Messing with that school structure is damaging to what the future will look like. Schools do more than just giving us skills to memorize and learn. There’s the social and economic aspects of it which can make or break one’s future success moreso than just what’s in the books. Just look at the Magic School Bus, and how friendly each race of kids were to each other, even the redhead. Yeah, I’m taking sociology of education. Sorry for getting too idealistic there.
Personally, I’ve always been part of pretty big classes. In high school, classes were about 32-34 students full of young men full of testosterone, angst and body odor. In grammar school, classes were in the mid 20’s. Now I’m a science major here at QC and I’m lucky if most of my lectures aren’t in lecture halls. It’s just what I’m used to, and I don’t really see how class size affects me personally and academically. But that’s a totally different case. Larger class sizes for public schools have greater implications for both student and teacher, especially in lower grade levels. For one, the teacher is more likely to get burnt out and stressed when teaching. The students (and parents) would have more authority and could get way more out of control. Even if you’re Ms. Frizzle, there’s a small chance in helping everyone out with a double occupancy class.
Firing teachers is not good. Ever. The nyc.gov article basically sums up everything and gives evidence on the negative effects of teacher layoffs. While “bad” teachers can be replaced, straight up eliminating the position might be the worst option. To teachers, it gives them a sense of pressure with their job security. They would feel pressured to be successful, which might not be good for overall learning experience. For students, one less teacher means one bigger classroom or another school closing. In addition, larger class sizes and less attention from a teacher could lead to dissatisfied parents, even if their child is successful academically. Like Selena Gomez dating Justin Bieber, losing teachers is a loss for everyone. Like I said in the beginning, there’s more to this than just the budget. Schools and teachers are more valuable to our future as a society than anything else (other than public health of course.) So I guess what I’m trying to say is that NYC can go out of their way and possibly out of the budget to provide an ideal education for all.
