Sign up for our annual Parent Action Confrence, DOE’s posted class size plan for next year, and more!

We will be hosting our annual Parent Action Conference, co-sponsored by NYC Kids PAC on Saturday, June 7, from 10 AM – 1:30 PM, via Zoom. The Keynote will be given by former NYC principal and Congressman Jamaal Bowman, who will speak about how we can defend our schools against the Trump assault on public education. Register here!

Workshops will be held on the following topics: How to run for office; Class size – what happens now?; How to defend your family against ACS; The need to strengthen student privacy against data breaches, commercial exploitation & the expansion of AI ; Fighting charter school abuse; How parents and teachers can have a voice through their School and District Leadership Teams; and Defending the Rights of Students with Special Needs.

·This morning, the DOE posted its draft class size plan for next year, as well as a list of schools receiving funding to hire teachers. As usual, the document is mostly boilerplate and contains no specific information about how DOE will be able to meet the 80-100% compliance rates for the following years, nor any details on how the 500 or more schools too overcrowded at their current enrollment will ever be able to lower class size to mandated levels. Instead, it provides yet more evidence that the DOE would like to claim permanent exemptions for all overcrowded schools. I pointed out these glaring problems at yesterday’s City Council budget hearing; my testimony is here.

If you’d like to speak out at one of the borough class size hearings to be held remotely about the need for the DOE to come up with a real plan that would provide smaller classes to all the kids who need them, respond to this message and we’ll provide you with more info and talking points. We’ll also be talking about this at our Parent Action Conference on June 7.

Save the date! Our annual Skinny Award Dinner will be held on Wed. June 18 at 6:30 PM at a central location in Greenwich Village, to honor an education leader who courageously stood up against the Trump agenda. It’s also one of the most fun events of the year. More details soon.

But please register for our June 7 Parent Action Conference now; space is limited!