Help us ensure that class sizes are reduced; plus news from our Parent Action Conference & hearings on Mayoral control 2019

1.      Please email your legislators TODAY to urge them to fully fund our schools but requiring stronger accountability, transparency and an actual plan that results in smaller classes in the NYC public schools, as envisioned in the original Campaign for Fiscal Equity decision. In that case, the state’s highest court concluded that NYC students were denied their constitutional right to a sound basic education because their class sizes were too large; and yet class sizes have risen sharply since that decision was made. The law should also require that the mandated public participation procession for the spending of these funds should happen before they have been allocated and spent, rather than months afterward, as currently occurs. For more on this, see the letter signed by the Education Law Center, Class Size Matters, NYC Kids PAC and AQE here.

2.     Thanks to all who came to our Parent Action Conference on Saturday – co-sponsored by NYC Kids PAC and CEC2. We had a full house of parents, teachers and activists who heard from all-star panel of legislators including Sen. Robert Jackson,   AM Jo Anne Simon and AM Alicia Hyndman, as well as terrific workshops, a great lunch with Sen. John Liu and CM Brad Lander speaking and answering questions, and in the afternoon, the film Tested about the stress put on NYC kids who take the specialized HS exam.   Photos of the day are posted on our Facebook page here and there is video to come.

3.     The State Senate will hold hearings on mayoral control this Friday March 15, at 250 Broadway at 10 AM. in the Senate Hearing Room, 250 Broadway, 19th Floor, New York, NY 10007. Please sign up to testify by sending an RSVP to [email protected]. See our mayoral control fact sheet here for reasons why we believe checks and balances should be added to the current autocratic system.

Talk to you soon, Leonie