Important events coming up soon, & news on state & city budget

May 15, 2023

Save the date! Our annual Parent Action Conference co-sponsored with NYC Kids PAC will be held Saturday June 10, starting at 9:30 AM at Seward Park Complex downtown at 350 Grand Street. There will be lots of fascinating panel discussions and workshops on a variety of topics, as well as breakfast and a delicious lunch. For more info and to RSVP, please click here.

• Tomorrow, Tuesday, May 16 starting at 4 PM, Public Advocate Jumaane Williams is sponsoring an Education Mini- Film Festival at The Shabazz Center, 3940 Broadway, followed by a panel discussion. Among the wonderful films to be shown will a short one on class size; and I’ll be speaking afterwards on the budget, the new class size law and what parents should do to advocate for their schools. For more info and to RSVP, go here.
• As to the budget, the State Legislature approved 14 more “zombie” charters for NYC. Supposedly, the state will cover the rental costs although there’s only $20 million in a fund that the city can apply to for reimbursement, and presumably that amount would have to be re-allocated each year. Moreover, the total operating cost of those 14 charters at scale is likely to be more than $100 million.  As to the city education budget, we still do not know how much the Mayor is proposing to cut school budgets next year, although the DOE now projects that K12 enrollment will decline less than 1%, so even that lame excuse doesn’t fly.
• We are advocating for NO school budget cuts next year and for the brutal cuts made this year to be restored. Also, that the capital plan for new school construction to be expanded, rather than be cut by over $2 billion and 22,000 seats. There is no way our schools will have the space to make the benchmarks in the new class size law with these egregious cuts. Please ask your Community Education Council  if they’d like to pass this resolution, and/or sign this one-pager with our budget priorities, co-signed by Class Size Matters, CPAC, AQE and NYC Kids PAC. You could also share the document with your Council Member.

Hope to see you tomorrow, and on June 10, Leonie

Leonie Haimson
Executive Director
Class Size Matters
Follow on twitter @leoniehaimson
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Host of “Talk out of School” WBAI radio show and podcast at https://talk-out-of-school.simplecast.com/