Two simple steps to support our work for small classes and address the crisis of school overcrowding

November 27, 2018

Today is #GivingTuesday, and I hope you will consider giving to Class Size Matters, the only organization in the city, the state and the nation focused on providing information on the proven benefits of class size reduction and advocating for smaller classes in the public schools.  The NY Times called us “city’s leading proponent of smaller classes”  and we continue to push for policymakers and opinion leaders to recognize that all children, but particularly those in disadvantaged communities, must receive smaller classes for the sake of real equity.  Click here if you want us to continue our work.

Today, I co-authored a piece in Gotham Gazette on the proposed Amazon deal with Sabina Omerhodzic, a Long Island City resident and member of Community Education Council in District 30.  We point out how the deal is likely to leave the education of neighborhood children in even more overcrowded conditions. There are NO new schools in the plan and to add insult to injury, the Mayor plans to give to Amazon a large DOE building that community members have been asking to be converted into much-needed schools and a community center instead.

In the piece, we connect this issue with a larger need to reform the city’s planning process, so that sufficient new schools are built along with development – and not years afterwards, as now occurs in our dysfunctional system.  If you agree, please send a message to the new City Council Charter Revision Commission by clicking here, to let them know that the city charter should be amended to require new schools to be built in any community where the schools are already overcrowded or likely to become so as a result of development and enrollment trends, and that parents should be involved in the process through their elected CECs.

And remember if you can donate to Class Size Matters today.

Thanks so much as always for your support,

Leonie