employment. 20 Tier 1 eligibles may retire after 20 years with a pension totaling 50% of their salary. Adding the predicted retirements of Tier 1 eligibles to normal attrition rates swells the projected number of teacher slots to be filled in the next four years to approximately 54,000. The need to fill between 41,000 and 54,000 slots in four years means that BOE will have to hire between 8,000 and 14,000 new teachers a year, far more than the approximately 6,200 teachers hired annually between 1993-1994 and 1999-2000. BOE will have to fill these teacher slots at a time when it will be trying to reduce the number of uncertified teachers working in its SURR schools and, by 2003, end its dependence on uncertified teachers entirely. As already noted the Regents have mandated that all schools have only certified teachers on staff by 2003. Plaintiffs also submitted probative evidence that BOE has increasingly been unable to fill principal, assistant principal and other administrative positions with adequately qualified individuals because of low salaries and poor working conditions. The evidence demonstrates that these administrators play a crucial role in building and maintaining effective schools. [187 [187 Misc.2d Misc.2d 36] 36] Defendants' attempts to rebut plaintiffs' evidence concerning New York City's competitiveness are not persuasive. First, defendants argue that the relevant salary comparison was not between New York City and the counties surrounding it, but rather between New York City and other large metropolitan areas. By this measure New York City teachers are better paid than their peers in many, though not all, large cities in the United States. This analysis is of limited probative value. It fails to account for cost of living differences among cities. It also assumes a national labor market for teachers. While it is true that BOE recruits out of State (and does a small amount of recruiting in a few foreign countries) no evidence was presented at trial concerning the extent of a national market for teachers. Defendants also argue that New York City public school salaries are actually competitive in comparison with the surrounding suburbs because New York City teachers' contracts allow them to work shorter hours than their suburban peers. According to charts presented by Dr. Podgursky, a New York City teacher's workday is shorter than that of a representative sample of 16 other school districts in the State. Dr. Podgursky testified that when the shorter day is considered New York City's per hour teacher pay falls in the middle of these 16 districts. Dr. Podgursky's analysis is based on the working hours specified in collective bargaining agreements governing the relevant school districts. These collective bargaining agreements were apparently obtained by counsel and there was no testimony at trial that the work hours specified therein have not been superseded or modified by side agreements or amendments. Even assuming that the collective bargaining agreements relied upon by Dr. Podgursky are accurate, an analysis based purely on hours at school is incomplete. Dr. Podgursky's study does not examine how suburban schools deploy teachers during this longer workday. Moreover, as discussed below, New York City class sizes are higher than those in the surrounding suburbs, which suggests that New York City public school teachers have more students to follow and homework to grade. Finally, with respect to the approximately 68% of New York City public school teachers who reside in the City, Dr. Podgursky's analysis does not account for the City's greater cost of living. In all events, the allegedly shorter workday of New York City's public school teachers has not provided the City an advantage in the competition for qualified teachers, as the evidence discussed above demonstrates. [187 [187 Misc.2d Misc.2d 37] 37] Finally, defendants criticize BOE's recruitment efforts and argue that BOE's poor outreach is in part to blame for any shortage of qualified teachers. For example, BOE has lost opportunities to hire qualified teachers by late recruiting. The court finds that, given lower salaries and often difficult working conditions, BOE has done an adequate job in recruiting new teachers. While BOE's efforts prior to 1997 were sometimes haphazard and even counterproductive, it has since engaged in a number of initiatives designed to attract new teachers to its schools. The problem is not BOE's sales pitch, but its product. E. Curricula BOE has in place "reasonably up-to-date basic curricula" for the provision of a sound basic education. (86 NY2d, supra, at 317.) The problem is not with the content of the curricula, but rather with its implementation. Inadequate teaching and, as discussed below, inadequate school facilities and instrumentalities of learning have hampered the delivery of curricula. The failure to assure the delivery of core curricula has been exacerbated by a chronic defunding over the last 20 years of two noncore subjects that can play an important supporting role in preparing students to become productive citizens: arts and physical education. The Court of Appeals' definition of sound basic education does not mention arts instruction or physical education. The court interprets this omission— in conjunction with the Court of Appeals' emphasis on a "minimally adequate" education—to mean that arts instruction and physical education for their own sake are not part of a sound basic education under the State's Education Article. However, arts instruction and physical education are important means of supporting the teaching of other subject areas that are part of a sound basic education. For English language learners and other at-risk students visual and performing arts provide a means of expression and achievement which foster selfconfidence and positive attitudes about school. A well-run arts program can induce students to attend school. Additionally, in the hands of an imaginative teacher the arts can provide a jumping-off point for the discussion of important aspects of contemporary society. Examples are numerous and self-evident. Without being too reductive, the production of plays such as Inherit the Wind, Richard II, or A Doll's House can be used to provoke discussion among [187 [187 Misc.2d Misc.2d 38] 38] students concerning the importance of dissent, the organization of government, and the role of women in society. While merely reading the play in a class may enable such discussions, a production seen by students in other classes would likely add to the didactic impact. Visual art with political content such as Francisco Goya's, Honore Daumier's, and Hans Haacke's can also be used to enhance learning. Arts from non-Western societies can be an effective means of introducing the belief systems of such societies to students in the United States. 21 All these pedagogic uses of the arts can assist schools in molding students into productive citizens. Finally, it is worth noting that an impressive amount of homegrown artistic talent has passed through New York City's public schools. Nurturing such talent may go beyond a sound basic education but certainly it is a public good. 22