Jan. 1, 2026 Just a quick update to let you know that yesterday, Zohran Mamdani announced that he was appointing District 3 Superintendent Kamar Samuels as his Chancellor. He also said he was renouncing his previous position that Mayoral control needs reform, expressed frequently during his campaign, and that he would ask the Legislature to […]
Dec. 29, 2025 This has been a watershed year for class size in NYC public schools. Nearly 750 schools lowered class size this fall to far smaller levels, and about 60% of classes achieved the benchmarks required by the law which we helped pass in 2022. In these classrooms, teachers are ecstatic about the changes […]
Dec. 22, 2025 The DOE is rapidly expanding the use of AI in our schools, despite the glaring lack of guidelines or guardrails, and despite the growing evidence that AI use may undermine student privacy, cognitive skills, critical thinking, creativity and the health of the local and global environment. I was quoted in this Chalkbeat […]
Dec. 17, 2025 This is a last minute email to let you know that DOE has removed the AI products from tonight’s PEP agenda, because they were told they would not be approved! A big thank you to those of you who sent emails in opposition. And for those who were planning to attend to […]
Dec. 16, 2025 1. Today the IBO released a report with their estimate of the costs of staffing to comply with the class size law; check out our response on how compliance could be achieved more thoroughly, equitably, efficiently and affordably than DOE currently plans to do. More on this soon. 2. […]
Dec. 9, 2025 The forum on Saturday explaining the serious risks of AI use in schools was standing room only, and there were many others attending via Zoom as far as away as Idaho. Thanks for those of you who came! The video will be posted soon, but meanwhile, here are three important steps you […]
December 12, 2025 A couple of quick requests: Please call Gov. Hochul’s office ASAP, especially if you haven’t already, to urge her to sign S7599C, the Loading Act, without weakening its provisions. She is in negotiations right now about what changes she would like to the bill. Recently, she forced significant changes before […]
December 1, 2025 Reminder: Wed. Dec. 3 is the deadline for NYC schools to fill out the survey/application for class size funding for next year. If you haven’t heard from your principal or your School Leadership Team about their plans, you should ask them ASAP. Principals are supposed to confirm that their SLTs have been […]
Nov. 23, 2025 1. Class Size Matters and the Parent Coalition for Student Privacy are among the groups co-sponsoring a important forum for parents and teachers on the rapidly expanded use of AI in the classroom, and how this is affecting privacy, the environment, and the development of students’ critical thinking and cognitive skills. […]
Nov. 18, 2025 New class size reports were released yesterday, showing that as of this fall, DOE achieved the legal goal of 60% of classes in compliance with the class size law. They actually achieved 64% but this figure was the result of exempting 123 schools and 10,535 classes from their calculations. You can check […]
Sign the petition asking for a moratorium on the use of AI until rigorous safeguards are established to protect student privacy, learning and the environment.
Click to see our presentation!
We honored Dr. Betty Rosa, former Bronx principal, District Superintendent, Board of Regents member and now NY State Education Commissioner for courageously standing up against the Trump administration on the importance of preserving Diversity, Equity and Inclusion programs in our public schools. 
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, Daniel Alicea and Kaliris Salas Ramirez interview guests and discuss issues affecting public schools in NYC, the state level and nationally. You can stream or subscribe to the podcast here at Simplecast; or at iTunes, Spotify or Google.
Sign here to urge NYC to implement a real, multi-year strategy to lower class size, as the law intends, without exempting up to half or more of all students.
