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 […]
April 28, 2020 Yesterday there was an emergency press conference to protest the DOE’s $827 million proposed cuts to education and to urge that they cut contracts and unnecessary spending on bureaucracy instead. A video of this press conference featuring parent leaders, teachers, advocates, and elected officials, is posted on our blog, along with a press release and […]
Dear Friends, 1. A week ago, I looked at the DOE contracts that the Panel for Educational Policy were being asked to vote on at their monthly meeting, scheduled for tonight. The list included hundreds of millions of dollars in spending, including $200 million to pay for busing services in March, with an automatic extension of another […]
Dear Friends, 1.First, some good news to report! The Board of Regents announced yesterday that the Regents exams due to take place this spring are cancelled. Today they put out guidance that any student who would have needed to pass any Regents exams to graduate in June can be issued a diploma without taking them. More details in […]
Please join us on Wed. June 18 when we will honor 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. Wine and food will be served!
Sign up here for our Annual Parent Action Conference on June 7th 2025, with keynote speaker Jamaal Bowman!
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.
