Releases & Statements

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE April 5, 2007
Contact: John Collins, Press Secretary
(212) 669-4193; (917) 496-4587
Release #: 009-2007

Public Advocate Gotbaum Visits Queens High School; Calls for DOE to Invest in Additional High School Seats

QUEENS – The Department of Education (DOE) will need to create nearly 16,000 more high school seats in Queens to meet its four-year graduation goal, Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum said today during a press conference at Newtown High School. Newtown is one of many high schools in Queens that is already overcrowded. It is currently operating at 133 percent its capacity – nearly 900 more students than intended for the school.

Public Advocate Gotbaum called on the DOE to invest in additional high school seats to help reach its graduation goals and curb overcrowding in New York City’s high schools.

Public Advocate Gotbaum said, “By failing to plan now, the Department of Education is planning to fail in the future. The City simply cannot expect children – in Queens or anywhere in the city—to learn if it is going to force them into overcrowded classrooms or make them take classes in trailers. In the greatest city in the world, we have the responsibility to give students the resources and tools they need to succeed.”

Public Advocate Gotbaum released an analysis earlier this month that documented how the City’s plan to build new high schools falls tens of thousands of seats short of the capacity needed to meet the DOE’s graduation goal. Under its current five-year school capital program, the City will need more than 50,000 new high school seats city-wide to meet its 70 percent four-year graduation goal. However, the DOE has budgeted for only 26,000 new high school seats by the 2009-10 school year – barely half of the seats needed to meet its graduation goal.

According to 2006 – 2007 DOE numbers, the schools in Queens already face gross over-crowding: