Our Parent Action Conference; update on capital plan; LA teacher strike and more!

January 23, 2019

Save the date! Class Size Matters will be holding our annual Parent Action Conference, co-sponsored with NYC Kids PAC and CEC District 2, on Saturday, March 9 at the Peck Slip School, in downtown Manhattan.  We will be sharing our Action Agenda for this year. To reserve your ticket now, or for info on the panels and workshops that will be offered, click here.   In the afternoon, we will show the film Tested, which follows a group of NYC students preparing to take the SHSAT, the specialized HS exam.

 

  1. We have now finished analyzing the new proposed five-year capital plan and the latest school overcrowding data, with thousands of seats that will go unfunded compared to DOE’s last estimate of need.  While the capital plan includes 57,000 seats, 50,000 of those seats won’t be built until 2024 or later – long after de Blasio has left office.  By that point, our schools will likely be even more overcrowded due to rampant development and 3K expansion.

If this capital plan is adopted, de Blasio’s second term will see fewer seats built than during his first term, and far less than any of Bloomberg’s three terms in office.  If you would like more information or a briefing for your district’s Community Education Council about the level of overcrowding in your schools, and how many seats are unfunded compared to the need, as well as the latest class size data, please let us know.

3. The Los Angeles teachers strike ended last night with a real improvements to their contract, requiring the district to lower class sizes in some grades immediately, and in all grades over the next four years. The issue has become a focus of national attention as a result of their strike – for good and for ill, with a bunch of class size deniers coming out of the woodwork to make misleading or outright false claims to dispute the proven benefits of smaller classes.  For more on the class size issue in Los Angeles, along with a handy fact sheet that refutes their arguments, check out our blog here.

4.Finally, our Parent Coalition for Student Privacy, along with the Network for Public Education, released the first 50-state report card today that grades each state on how well its laws protect student privacy, along with an interactive map. Check it out!  NY received an average of  B- for the  state law passed in 2014, which is pretty good – though that law has not yet been enforced.  The regulations to enact the law are due to be released soon – I’ll keep you posted.

Thanks Leonie

Categories Newsletters, Uncategorized, Updates | Tags: | Posted on January 24, 2019

Social Networks: RSS Facebook Twitter Google del.icio.us Stumble Upon Digg Reddit

Comments are closed.