August 5, 2022 Last week on Friday, August 5, in our lawsuit against the damaging school budget cuts, Judge Lyle Black issued a court order that requires the city to revert to the last year’s education budget with a few exceptions, until and unless the City Council takes a revote on the education budget. I […]
April 25, 2023 It’s crunch time for the budget. We are now getting word from insiders that a budget deal may be finalized soon that would include allowing 22 more “zombie” charter schools above the cap, the number of charters which closed or never opened, which could turn into 66 more charters, due to a […]
Corrected link to Feb. capital plan and Michelle Joseph’s email address below. I have also added the email of another PEP member Lily Chan. Unfortunately, eight out of 23 PEP members still do not have their email addresses posted on the DOE website. Please also speak at tomorrow’s PEP meeting if you can about the […]
March 13, 2023 1. The Chancellor is forming a working group to help DOE develop their class size reduction plan. You can apply to be a member of the group here; with a deadline of tomorrow, March 14 at 5 PM. 2. The City Council will be holding hearings […]
March 22, 2023 Dear all– During the NYC Council education hearings last week, the DOE finally admitted that the $800 million in reductions to DOE in the Mayor’s preliminary budget will cause school budgets to be cut again next year, though they refuse to say by how much. Instead, the Council should insist on restoring […]
April 12, 2023 Dear all: The state budget is now nearly two weeks overdue, with negotiations showing little evident progress so far. As a result, Gov. Hochul’s controversial proposal to raise the NYC charter cap is still up in the air, that the city says would cost another $1.3 billion, over and above $3 billion […]
See the fact sheet here and below, showing how DOE wants to cut more than 22,000 new school seats from 15 school districts, and more than $2.2 billion from new capacity out of the capital plan, compared to the plan adopted in June 2021 — just when there needs to be MORE seats to lower […]
We gave the following updated charter school briefing to the Education Committee of the NYC Bar Association on April 3, 2023, showing the need for more accountability and oversight for the charter sector. Take a look!
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 […]
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.
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 .
