City budget due next week- help us ensure that funding for smaller classes is included!

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 only a few days to persuade him to change his mind, and convince the Council to hold firm. We need your help!

1- Come to a rally in City Hall Park on Monday, June 28 at 11 AM. (map here). Join other parents, advocates & teachers who will speak about the need to use the additional state and federal aid for critical programs, class size #1 among them. Bring your kids, bring signs, bring your passion & your understanding that this is clearly what is needed to transform our schools and classrooms into the caring, focused and engaging centers of learning that NYC children need, particularly after a year and a half of disruption, sadness and remote learning.

2- Sign our petition to the Mayor and the Speaker. This weekend is your last chance, as we plan to deliver them on Monday to City Hall.

3- Call the Mayor at 311 or email him at [email protected], to tell him it’s finally time for him to live up to his frequent promise that he would lower class size once he got the long-awaited CFE funding.

4. Tweet about class size to the Mayor and Speaker at @nycmayor & @NYCSpeakerCojo. Or retweet one of the tweets I’ve already sent today, like this tweet or this one. I’ve also tweeted that reporting requirements should be attached to any targeted class size funds — to ensure that the DOE doesn’t simply cut back on its budget for staffing at the same time, and that NYC kids get the full benefit of this funding. More on this here.

Hope to see you on Monday at City Hall Park!

Leonie

P.S. if you haven’t yet watched our new video on class size, you can checkout the six-minute version here, or the 2- minute one here.