May 24, 2022 1. Just a quick note to let you know that there are City Council public hearings tomorrow on the budget, starting at 10 AM. If you’d like to testify by zoom, you can sign up here. Written testimony can also be submitted for up to to 72 hours after these hearings are […]
May 23, 2022 Below is the presentation I gave to the ECC on the proposed budget cuts to schools and the capital plan and their likely impact on class size and school overcrowding. Because of the sharp decline in enrollment of the past two years, the DOE has a real opportunity to sustain the smaller […]
Because of our continued advocacy and the support of the Commissioner, the NY State Education Department is now requiring that NYC hold its CEC and Borough public hearings on their Contract for Excellence spending plan for next year in May and June of this year – rather than dragging these hearings into the fall and […]
May 20, 2022 Dear folks — 1. The State Legislature will be in session only for twenty more days. Please call your Legislators today and urge them to pass the bills that would require NYC to phase in smaller classes in all grades. Tell them to support and bring to the floor for […]
April 27, 2022 Yesterday, Mayor Adams announced his executive budget, and though he he added $1.2 billion for various initiatives, including even more funding for the police, he is still planning to cut school budgets by $375 million over the next three years, which combined with unidentified school budget “efficiency savings” of this year, would […]
Please urge your Citywide or Community Education Council, Presidents Council, PTA or Community Board to pass this resolution and share it with the DOE and your Council Members. And if you pass it, please also send us a copy at [email protected] The Chancellor’s Parent Advisory Council passed a similar resolution that is posted here. Whereas: […]
The presentation is also posted here. The DOE is proposing to cut $1.1 billion from new school construction in the capital plan, and to cut more than 6,000 seats from Queens and nearly that many from the Bronx. The Panel for Educational Policy will vote on this plan on Wednesday night, April 27 at 6 […]
March 9, 2022 Right now, NY state legislators are working on their one-house budgets. Meanwhile, NYC has lost out on more than $2 billion in funds between 2012 and 2020, because they are the only district in the state that is exempted from receiving charter transitional aid, meant to reimburse districts from some of the […]
March 7, 2021 1.The NY Assembly one-house education budget is being discussed and finalized tonight. Please tweet and call your Assembly Member now! Tell them to include smaller classes for NYC kids in the budget. You can find their phone nos. here by plugging your address. Here’s a script: As your constituent, I urge you […]
March 31, 2022 1. Last week we put out a new report, showing how average class sizes have fallen significantly in many schools, due to enrollment decline, though sharp disparities remain. We also wrote about how the DOE is proposing to cut spending for new schools by over $1.5B, leading to over 11,000 school seats […]
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 .
