Assemblyman William Colton (D – Gravesend, Bensonhurst, Bath Beach, and Dyker Heights) said that the City Council has been rushing through many controversial bills. How about passing a practical bill Int. 2374-2021, a classroom capacity?

“The smaller class size will allow teachers to better focus on the individual needs and weaknesses of each child and in the days of COVID, this will help protect our children with more social distancing. There are billions of federal dollars from the federal COVID assistance that can be used to create more classrooms to make this happen,” Colton stated.

“This bill was sponsored by 41 council members. This bill would require each classroom in a school of the city school district of the city of New York to provide 35 square feet of net floor area per child. On 10/27/2021 the Committee on Education hearing was held and unfortunately, this bill was laid over the same day,” Colton continued.

"Ironically early this month City Council passed a bill allowing nearly 800,000 non-citizens to vote in local elections and Mayor de Blasio chose not to veto this bill. The 39 out of 49 council members have signed onto Int. 2374 which is an overwhelming majority and is preventing the mayor from blocking it, but for an unknown reason, Mayor de Blasio is preventing bill 2374, classroom capacity, from getting to vote which would help the education of all children by lowering class size. It does raise a valid question. Does the mayor even care about the well-being of our children? The NYC class sizes are 10-30% larger than in the rest of the state. Our children deserve a better environment and a better chance to learn. Therefore, I am urging the City Council Speaker to schedule a vote on this bill immediately. Our children are our future, and they deserve the best,” Colton added.