July 1, 2020 Dear friends– Whether the budget that was just passed by the City Council was a good one or not depends on whether you’re looking at the glass half empty or half full. According to the Council press release, they negotiated the restoration of $100 million in proposed cuts to Fair Student Funding, $11.6 […]
June 26, 2020 Dear friends– Thank you so much sending a message via Action Network to the Mayor & Chancellor to let them know school budgets next year must be increased rather than cut to ensure the health & safety of students and staff, and to provide smaller classes & sufficient support to kids who will need […]
June 24, 2020 Friends– Update: The NYC budget is due June 30, a week from today. This morning, Mayor de Blasio announced that he is considering another $1 billion in cuts, which would necessitate the layoff of an additional 22,000 municipal workers. PLEASE, send a letter to the Mayor and Chancellor today, if you haven’t already, urging him […]
June 23, 2020 Friends — We are in the final week of the city budget negotiations. According to sources, the Mayor is holding fast and insisting on huge cuts to schools, which will prevent them from being reopened next year with all sufficient health and safety precautions and enough teachers and counselors that our kids […]
Friends — Please send a letter to the Speaker Johnson today and the Education and Finance Council chairs to say that the DOE budget should NOT be cut next year, as the Mayor has proposed; but instead, school funding should be increased so they can hire more teachers, counselors, nurses, custodial staff as well as purchasing the supplies to ensure that […]
June 11, 2020 Dear friends– Class Size Matters and NYC Kids PAC will be holding a conference via Zoom called Sharing Ideas & Solutions for Reopening Schools: The Path Forward on Saturday, June 20 from 11 AM to 1 PM. During this conference, we will collect ideas from parents, guardians, teachers, students and concerned New Yorkers about what precautions and […]
June 7, 2020 Dear friends — Class Size Matters and NYC Kids PAC are holding a conference on Saturday, June 20 from 11 AM to 1 PM called Sharing Ideas & Solutions for Reopening Schools: The Path Forward. The conference will be co-sponsored by CEC 4, CEC 8, CEC 14, CEC 17 and CEC 28. Please save the date! […]
Dear Friends– 1. I had a piece in the Gotham Gazette yesterday that explains how schools should not reopen next fall without a plan to reduce class size, to provide both the social distancing necessary for health and safety and the academic and emotional support that students will need to make up for the […]
Dear Friends — A quick note to update you on a few issues: 1- In my previous email, I had the wrong date for this week’s meeting of the Panel for Educational Policy when a bunch of highly questionable, potentially wasteful contracts will be voted upon – it is Thursday May 7 at 6 PM. DOE’s […]
Dear Friends, 1. On Wed., the Panel for Educational Policy was scheduled to meet and vote on several huge contracts, including school busing for $200 million for March and another $200 million for April, though all buses have been idle since mid-March. The DOE had told Panel members they were legally obligated to pay 85% of […]
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.
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 .
