Sept. 17, 2023 A quick but important update on important meetings happening this week and next: 1. Save these dates on class size! The Class Size Working Group that was appointed by the Chancellor to help develop a plan to lower class size citywide in accordance with the new state law is holding public engagement […]
September 12, 2023 Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but Mayor Adams has now ordered every city agency to impose an immediate hiring freeze and submit budget cuts for next year totaling nearly 15%: 5% cuts by October 6, another round of 5% cuts by January, and yet another 5% by April. According […]
Sept. 8, 2023 Dear all — Welcome to a new school year, and the first year of the phase-in of smaller classes, according to the new state law. Unfortunately, we have already heard of schools where class sizes have increased substantially compared to last year. We anticipated this would occur, given cuts to Fair Student […]
July 5, 2021 1. The DOE’s Draft Class Size Reduction Plan, which is required by law to be submitted to the state next month, makes only one cursory commitment for the next school year: Ensure that schools with classrooms that currently meet the class size mandate have appropriate funding to continue to […]
August 15, 2023 Dear all – I hope you are having a delightful and restful summer. I wanted to bring to your attention that the DOE has posted an updated draft class size reduction plan that omits the only promise made in their previous plan – that they would help ensure that the schools that […]
June 26, 2023 1. We’ve done an updated budget analysis that finds that one third of all NYC public schools are facing Galaxy budget cuts as of June 14, compared to the same date last year, and about one-third are also facing Fair Student Funding cuts. We explain here why both are a real concern, […]
June 20, 2023 Eight days from now, on Wed. June 28th, we will be holding our annual Skinny dinner in honor of Rep. Jamaal Bowman, a former NYC principal and a great force for change in the US Congress. Rep. Bowman has sponsored two terrific bills that would change the face of education in NYC […]
June 14, 2023 Our annual Parent Action Conference on Saturday was a great success, and we will have follow-up information soon with links to some of the presentations and videos. One of the issues we covered was the looming budget cuts to schools. Though the DOE says that schools’ initial school funding for next year […]
Because of the poor air quality, we have decided to move our Annual Parent Conference online — scheduled for this Saturday June 1 . We’re sorry that we can’t meet you all in person for the first time since 2019, but it’s not worth risking your health. The new link to RSVP is here. The […]
May 22, 2023 On Friday, DOE posted what is purported to be their draft five- year class size reduction plan, in accordance with the new state law. As I was quoted in the Daily News, “It’s a big nothing burger. There is no plan. They’re hoping just to coast on enrollment decline until it’s too […]
Talk out of School radio show and podcast airs Sunday night at 7 PM on WBAI 99.5 FM or online at www.wbai.org when Leonie Haimson and Daniel Alicea interview guests and discuss issues affecting public schools in NYC, the state level and nationally. You can stream or subscribe to the podcast here; or at iTunes, Spotify or Google.
We held our annual Skinny award dinner Wed. June 28, 2023, honoring Rep. Jamaal Bowman, former Bronx principal and now a progressive trailblazer who is fighting in Congress to protect and improve our public schools. More photos on Facebook .
