July 29, 2021 Check out the memo Class Size Matters, the Education Law Center and the Alliance for Quality Education sent to Commissioner Rosa and Regents Chancellor Young today, outlining our serious reservations concerning the DOE’s proposed Contract for Excellence plan for school year 2021-2022. That plan is posted here. More from the DOE, including […]
Update: The DOE has now posted a School Allocation Memo 49 with guidance for this $18 million class size reduction “pilot” in 72 elementary schools, as well as a spreadsheet listing actual amounts per school. [The spreadsheet allotments only add up to $14.3 million, but perhaps that’s because the DOE is covering the rest of […]
July 8, 2021 Instead of the $250 million the City Council proposed should be invested in lowering class size, Mayor de Blasio would agree to only $18 million, for a “pilot” project in a few schools. This despite the fact that there will be a crying need for smaller classes next year, both for social […]
July 20, 2021 Late Friday, the DOE finally posted a schedule for Contract for Excellence (C4E) borough hearings, in response to a letter from Wendy Lecker of the Ed Law Center and I sent nearly a month ago, urging them to schedule timely hearings and to take public input seriously in their plan, as the […]
Friday June 25, 2021 Dear folks — It’s down to the wire. The City Council negotiations with the Mayor over next year’s budget are in their final stages, as the budget is due next week. Reportedly, the Mayor is dragging his feet over the Council’s proposal to allocate $250M towards lowering class size. We have […]
See our letter written with the Education Law Center to the DOE Chancellor about the need to hold prompt hearings to gain input from parents and others on how the C4E funding will be spent next year. This public input is legally required and is especially critical now, given that our schools are finally getting […]
NYC educators, parents, students, elected officials explain how class size has a profound impact on learning and the quality of education, especially for disadvantaged and high needs students, and that for the sake of true equity, class sizes should be reduced in NYC and nationwide. If you agree, please sign our petition to the […]
Updated June 14, 2021. Below is our summary of the positions of the leading candidates for NYC Mayor on a range of critical education issues. For maximum readability, download it and read at 100% of its size. Please share with others!
Below and here is our May 25, 2021 testimony before the NYC Council Finance Committee on the FY 2021 budget, in support of a separate allocation of $250 million for class size reduction. Below that is the testimony of Shino Tanikawa, co-chair of the Education Council Consortium, which represents the members of the parent-led Citywide […]
Please ask your legislators to support S.6296 and A. 7447, the bills that would update NYC’s obligation to lower class size by clicking here. The bills have growing support, but time is short! We only have less than two weeks before the Legislature adjourns for the year. Memos of support for these bills have now […]
Sign the petition asking for a moratorium on the use of AI until rigorous safeguards are established to protect student privacy, learning and the environment.
Click to see our presentation!
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, Daniel Alicea and Kaliris Salas Ramirez interview guests and discuss issues affecting public schools in NYC, the state level and nationally. You can stream or subscribe to the podcast here at Simplecast; or at iTunes, Spotify or Google.
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.
