Late AI guidance, delayed class size plan, my new Substack & tomorrow’s PEP meeting

Tuesday August 25, 2026

NYC public schools begin on Sept. 10 – in a little over two weeks, yet there has been no update yet on the AI guidance that was first released in March and was supposed to be revised based on public feedback, and no sign as to whether our call for a moratorium will be accepted. Our petition urging the Mayor to implement a pause now has more than 5000 signatures.

The DOE is also late in terms of their obligations on class size. They were required to revise their draft class size plan and send it to the state on August 14, and to post it online within 24 hours afterwards, according to the mandatory timetable in the law, also reflected in the SED calendar.   Yet that didn’t happen, and the revised plan  still isn’t posted.

Officials at the State Education Department told me DOE claimed their plan was delayed “due primarily to the Contracts for Excellence calendar shifting as a result of the timing of the enacted State Budget.” That excuse is bogus, because the timing of the entire process including developing a draft plan and holding public hearings etc. and then finalizing it is pegged to the date of the enacted budget, which was May 28 this year. Actually, because of the lateness of the state budget, the DOE actually had nearly two extra months to come up with a plan.

In any case, the DOE missed that extended deadline, and asked for and was granted another extension until September 4, this time without even offering any excuse.

If this delay results in a meaningful, detailed multi-year class size plan that explains how schools will be able to meet the now-extended deadlines in the law without an inordinate number of schools exempted, that would be worth it. But I’m not holding my breath.

2. Check out my new Substack and consider subscribing. I’ve written a post on why the drop in state tests can’t be trusted to tell us anything about what’s working or not in our schools, and a letter to the new members of the Panel for Educational Policy, urging them to exert more oversight on DOE contracts and policies.

Speaking of the PEP, tomorrow Wednesday, August 26 at 6:00pm they’ll be holding their monthly meeting at MS 131 at 100 Hester Street in Manhattan. The AI Moratorium Coalition is having a pizza party for parents and the kids at the event; please come and speak your mind about the need for an AI pause, the delay in the class size plan – or anything else. More info and register here.

In my letter to the PEP, I highlighted two especially questionable contracts: for the Public Consulting Group and Encore Support Services. The latter company exposed the data of hundreds if not thousands of NYC special ed students in 2023. Contracts for both vendors have since been removed from the tomorrow’s agenda along with nearly $33 million in other PD contracts.

3. Dolly Parton’s death has deeply affected me along with countless others. Peter Greene writes movingly about her Imagination Library, which has given more than 332 million books to young children since she started the organization 31 years ago. If you can, please donate to the organization in her memory.

Thanks Leonie