December 13, 2020 Dear Friends, 1 – It’s that time of year; please give to Class Size Matters, we need financial support especially as we could not hold our annual Skinny award fundraiser last spring because of COVID. We rely on donations from our supporters; please do so by clicking here. Also, if you’re buying gifts on […]
November 12, 2020 Dear Friends, 1/ Today, Thursday Nov. 12 at 6:30 PM, I’ll be speaking at an online forum hosted by Brooklyn for Peace about how the COVID-19 pandemic has widened the inequities that already exist within our public school system. You can find more information about this forum and sign up to attend here. 2/ The […]
October 16, 2020 The NYC Council Education and Health Committees held oversight hearings on October 16 on the reopening of schools, as well as two proposed bills to require detailed attendance reporting: Int. 2058 and Int. 2104. Below is my testimony on the issue of class size and how to sharpen these bills to require more precise and disaggregated reporting […]
I sent the below memo to the members of the Panel for Educational Policy last week; questions about their busing contracts, DOE’s lack of compliance with the state student privacy law by failing to post their district data privacy policy and contracts with vendors that have access to personal student data, and problems related to […]
October 5, 2020 Dear Friends, Yesterday the Mayor announced that all school buildings will be closed on Wed. in 9 neighborhoods in Queens and Brooklyn where the infection positivity rates have been over 3% for at least seven days; today the Governor moved that date forward, saying these schools will be closed starting tomorrow Tuesday. The zip codes […]
Sept. 17, 2020 This morning, the Mayor announced that in-person schooling for those students opting into blended learning would be delayed once again. The new schedule is below: Kids in 3K, preK and District 75 ONLY will return to school on Monday. Kids in K-5, K-8 schools will return on Sept 29. Kids in middle […]
September 1, 2020 Friends– Today, the Mayor, the Chancellor and the unions – the UFT, CSA and DC37—announced a deal that would move back the first day of school to Wednesday, September 16. All students will begin remote instruction on that day. In-person learning will begin the week of Monday Sept. 21 for blended learning […]
August 10, 2020 Dear friends– On Friday, the NYC Department of Education posted the latest version of their reopening plans. It contained two big revisions from the one previously released: Now schools will be able apply for exemptions from having to provide any in-person learning , and/or give preference to certain vulnerable populations to receive this […]
August 4, 2020 Dear friends– Late on Friday, the DOE released the outline of a plan for school reopening in the fall, to be submitted to the State Board of Health. They promise more details at the school level will follow. They released a rubric and protocol for individual school closures if Covid cases emerge among students or staff. […]
July 21, 2020 Last week, Governor Cuomo, the State Department of Health, and the NY State Education Department all came out with detailed guidance on what measures schools should take to reopen in the fall to ensure health and safety as well as provide instructional and emotional support to their students. If the COVID positivity rates of all […]
Sign here to urge NYC to implement a real, multi-year strategy to lower class size, as the law intends, without exempting up to half or more of all students.
Talk out of School radio show and podcast airs Sunday night at 7 PM on WBAI 99.5 FM or online at www.wbai.org when Leonie Haimson and Daniel Alicea interview guests and discuss issues affecting public schools in NYC, the state level and nationally. You can stream or subscribe to the podcast here; or at iTunes, Spotify or Google.
We held our annual Skinny award dinner Wed. June 28, 2023, honoring Rep. Jamaal Bowman, former Bronx principal and now a progressive trailblazer who is fighting in Congress to protect and improve our public schools. More photos on Facebook .
