Oct. 28, 2021 1. Check out the compelling testimony including videos from yesterday’s hearings on Intro 2374 and the importance of lowering class size, from Regent Kathy Cashin, Diane Ravitch, Elsie McCabe Thompson and others. Diane Ravitch testified that lowering class size would be the most powerful education reform the Council could enact. My written […]
Oct. 28, 2021 Much of the testimony yesterday at the City Council was compelling about the importance of lowering class size and the need to pass Intro 2374 for the sake of NYC students. Class Size Matters testimony is here. Testimony of Michael Mulgrew, UFT President, is here. An article about these hearings is here. […]
Oct. 27, 2021 Video of Leonie Haimson is above, testifying on behalf of Intro 2374 at the Oct. 26 NYC Council hearings. Class Size Matters written testimony is below. The bill would effectively lower class size by enlarging the per student space required in classrooms. The testimony and videos of some of the other witnesses […]
The original 2007 DOE Instructional Footprint, used to guide space allocation and changes in school utilization including co-locations, assumed class sizes of twenty students per class in grades K-3, and 25 students in grades 4-5 in non-Title One schools. (It did not say what class sizes were assumed for Title One schools). In 2009, however, […]
On Oct. 5, 2021, the NY State Senate Standing Education Committee and the State Senate Standing Committee on NYC Education will hold joint hearings on the city’s use of the additional state and federal education funds at 250 Broadway downtown. More about these hearings here. A video of my oral testimony is posted above; the […]
Oct. 15, 2021 Thanks to all of you who called the Speaker’s office, urging him to schedule hearings on the classroom capacity bill that would phase in smaller classes, Intro 2374, introduced by the Speaker Corey Johnson and Council Education Chair Mark Treyger. Yesterday it was announced that Council hearings would be held on this […]
Oct. 14 Update: The City Council Education Committee hearings for Intro 2374 are now scheduled for Oct. 27, 2021, starting at 10 AM. You can sign up to speak remotely here or submit testimony. Please do! Oct. 13, 2021 Dear all: 1. Exciting news! More than half of all City Council members have now signed […]
Testimony on Mayoral control before the Assembly Education Committee. Most large districts whose schools suffered under Mayoral control including Detroit, Newark, and now Chicago have gone back to elected school boards. Why shouldn’t NYC voters have the same rights?
The following letter was sent on July 29, 2021 to the NY State Education Commissioner Betty Rosa and the Regents Chancellor Lester Young concerning the many problems with NYC’s Contract for Excellence proposed plan.
Sept. 30, 2021 I was asked to provide a brief summary of de Blasio’s educational record for a forum sponsored by CUNY’s School of Labor and Urban Studies today, with other presenters on other issues listed to the left. My presentation was limited to five minutes so I couldn’t present the entire power point, and […]
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 .
