Class‑Size Mandates Redistribute Funds

State mandates to meet class‑size limits can mechanically reallocate city education dollars away from high‑poverty, underenrolled schools toward middle‑class districts that are over the size cap, producing an unintended regressive transfer. The IBO analysis cited for NYC shows compliance requirements—not pedagogical needs—can drive where money flows in large urban systems. — This exposes a concrete policy failure mode where technical regulatory thresholds (class sizes) create distributive consequences that reshape equity and politics in K‑12 funding.