Our critique of the DOE preliminary budget & the capital plan & what should be done instead

March 17, 2023 Hearings were held on Wed. before the Education committee of the City Council on the DOE preliminary budget and the Feb. amendment to the capital plan.  During the hearings, the DOE admitted that they plan to cut school budgets even more next year, though they wouldn’t say by how much.  Instead, the […]

March 17, 2023 in Testimonies & Comments, Updates by

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Planning for class size reduction: Presentation for Presidents Council in D20

District 20 is one of the most overcrowded school districts in the city.  Here is the presentation I gave their Presidents Council (PTA presidents) on March 10, 2023.

March 14, 2023 in Presentations by

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FAQ on the new NY State class size law

Here and below is an FAQ on the new NY State class size law, that will require NYC public schools to phase in smaller class size caps in all schools at much lower levels over the next five years.

March 13, 2023 in Uncategorized by

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Budget priorities for FY 2024: Urge the City Council to restore the savage cuts made to school budgets this year

Our education budget priorities for next year, FY 2024, are here and below. They are focused on the need for schools to have their budgets restored and the cuts made this year reversed. If you agree with these proposals, please forward them to your City Council Member. We have also drafted a new resolution for […]

March 13, 2023 in Campaigns, Reports & Memos, Uncategorized, Updates by

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Planning for class size reduction: presentation to Public Advocate office

March 9, 2023 See here or below, presentation provided the Public Advocate’s office.

March 11, 2023 in Presentations, Uncategorized by

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Tonight’s Talk out of School, new capital plan cuts to schools, the charter cap and more!

March 5, 2023 Tonight, Sunday on the WBAI radio show #Talk out of School at 7 PM EST,  I’ll be interviewing new PEP member Naveed Hasan on the influx of refugee children in NYC schools – are they getting enough support? Also, parent advocate Cassie Creswell will talk about the fascinating Chicago mayoral race in […]

March 5, 2023 in Newsletters, Uncategorized by

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New proposed capital plan cuts $2.3B for new school seats compared to plan adopted in 2021

March 5, 2023 The new proposed amendment to the 5-year capital plan for schools was recently released; you can check it out here. Compared to the capital plan adopted in June 2021, the DOE/SCA wants to cut the number of new school seats to be built by 38% — or over 21,000.  This is inconceivable […]

March 5, 2023 in Reports & Memos, Uncategorized, Updates by

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Presentation to Speaker Adams on class size/overcrowding

Here is a presentation on the class size/school overcrowding issue that we used to brief Speaker Adams’ staff earlier this month; it describes some of the challenges in terms of budgeting, space and enrollment that must be addressed if DOE is to achieve the smaller class size caps in the new state law.

February 24, 2023 in Presentations by

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Why the charter cap should NOT be raised & what should CECs and parents do about this.

Updated March 5, 2023 You can  send an email to your Legislators here, in opposition  to Gov. Hochul’s proposal to lift the NYC charter cap and that instead the charter law needs to be strengthened, to eliminate NYC’s onerous and unfair obligation to provide all new and expanding charter schools with space, remove loopholes which […]

February 18, 2023 in Campaigns, Presentations, Uncategorized, Updates by

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What the Chancellor said on class size and raising the charter cap

Feb. 15, 2023 1. Last week, state education budget hearings were held, where many groups, advocates and organizations inveighed against the Governor’s proposal to expand the cap on charter schools. Chancellor Banks also testified and was non-committal, saying it was up to the Mayor weigh in, But under questioning from Sen. Liz Krueger, he admitted […]

February 15, 2023 in Newsletters, Updates by

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