Sept. 25, 2024 1.Big news – Chancellor Banks is resigning as of Dec. 31, 2024, to be replaced by Melissa Aviles-Ramos, current Deputy Chancellor for Family Engagement. This follows the announced resignations of other top officials, including the Police Commissioner and Commissioner of Health, in the last twelve days. The whirlwind of scandals and investigations […]
Sept. 17, 2024 1.Last week, the organization I co-chair, Parent Coalition for Student Privacy sent a letter to the Mayor, the Chancellor and Health Commissioner expressing our concerns about the city’s contract with and promotion of Teenspace, an online mental health service which collects highly sensitive data from students. According to its privacy policy, the […]
This FAQ also available as a pdf here. Updated Sept. 13, 2024 On June 2, 2022, the NY State Legislature passed a bill to by a vote of 59-4 in the Senate and 147-2 in the Assembly, requiring that NYC schools implement a five-year class size reduction plan beginning in the fall of 2022. On […]
As of 9/13/24 Class Size Law, approved by Legislature in June 2023 and signed into law by Governor in Sept. 2023 CSM FAQ on law & its implementation, updated for the 2024-2025 school year CSM Myths and Facts on class size law DOE class size data by city, district and school, as reported three times […]
Sept. 5, 2024 Welcome back to a new school year! This is the second year of the legally required phase-in of smaller classes in NYC public schools, and though the Chancellor and others claim that they will meet the goal of 40% classes compliant with the class size limits, this is still uncertain, especially as […]
September 9, 2024 Below and here is our recent testimony on Foundation Aid. We point out how over the past 24 years, the DOE has repeatedly supplanted of state aid meant for class size reduction , and caution that creating any dedicated funding stream for that purpose for NYC as part of the Foundation Aid […]
July 2, 2024 1. The city budget, including for education, was approved last Sunday. The good news is that most of the Mayor’s egregious cuts were restored. But three Council Members voted no — Alexa Aviles, Shahana Hanif and Tiffany Caban –because while they said they were glad that the Council was able to prevent […]
July 8, 2024 Just a quick message to let you know that in response to our legal challenge to their previous guidance, DOE sent revised instructions to principals last week, making it crystal clear that no students can be assigned to an online class without the prior written consent of their parents. They reversed their […]
July 23, 2024 Yesterday, Class Size Matters sent a detailed letter to State Education Commissioner Betty Rosa, criticizing the document that DOE submitted to the state, entitled their “FY 2025 Class Size Reduction Plan.” We urged her to reject it, and instead demand that DOE provide a real, multi-year plan showing how schools will be […]
August 7, 2024 I wanted to update you that an new version of the NYC School Capital plan for FY 2025-2029 was posted by the School Construction Authority a week ago. It contains an additional $2 billion for new capacity, as required by the state budget, and an additional 10,382 school seats, for a total […]
You’re invited! Class Size Matters will hold our annual Skinny Awards on Wednesday, June 12th. You can sign up for the event here.
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 .
