Important deadlines this week: submit your views on Mayoral control and the state budget
January 30, 2024
Two important deadlines this week.
1- The deadline to submit your views on Mayoral control is tomorrow, Wed. January 31, at 5 PM. You can upload your testimony here. The borough hearings were very well attended, and the overwhelming number of speakers, whether parents, teachers or community members, were vehemently opposed to the continuation of the current system. You can see videos of their comments, or take a look at my rather lengthy written testimony , which challenges many of the myths surrounding mayoral control, including that it is a more accountable or efficient system of governance. Feel free to echo or amplify any of these points, and if you can, please mention the refusal of the last three mayors to lower class size, despite the need for this critical reform.
2- The NY State Legislature is holding its joint legislative budget hearing on elementary & secondary education on Thursday, Feb. 1. You can submit written testimony by emailing it no later than 5 PM on Thursday to financechair@nysenate.gov and wamchair@nyassembly.gov ; be sure to copy your own legislators if you do .
Here are some points you might make:
a) The Legislature should reject Gov. Hochul’s education cuts to NYC schools of $123 million, and instead follow the current Foundation formula which would provide an additional $345 million rather than the $222 million she proposed.
b) The Legislature should provide sufficient oversight so that NYC doesn’t supplant that additional funding by continuing to cut school budgets and the capital plan. Instead, they should try to ensure that the DOE actually lowers class size according to the law, by adopting the recommendations of the Class Size Working Group.
c) Finally, urge the Legislature to make NYC eligible for charter transition aid, and relieve the city of having to pay charter school rent — the only district in the state singled out in these two, burdensome ways. This would provide about $200 million extra to the city next year, an amount that will increase over time. More here on these revenue and savings proposals.
thanks!
Leonie Haimson
Executive Director
Class Size Matters
124 Waverly Pl.
New York, NY 10011
phone: 917-435-9329
leonie@classsizematters.org
www.classsizematters.org
Follow on twitter @leoniehaimson
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Host of “Talk out of School” WBAI radio show and podcast at https://talk-out-of-school.simplecast.com/
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