August 7, 2024 I wanted to update you that an new version of the NYC School Capital plan for FY 2025-2029 was posted by the School Construction Authority a week ago. It contains an additional $2 billion for new capacity, as required by the state budget, and an additional 10,382 school seats, for a total […]
June 25, 2024 1. We sent off our comments yesterday to the Mayor and Chancellor, urging them to improve their class size “plan”, which makes insufficient investments in staffing and space. It was signed by about 570 parents, educators, and community leaders. Thanks to those of you who signed on! The full petition is here. […]
July 2, 2024 1. The city budget, including for education, was approved last Sunday. The good news is that most of the Mayor’s egregious cuts were restored. But three Council Members voted no — Alexa Aviles, Shahana Hanif and Tiffany Caban –because while they said they were glad that the Council was able to prevent […]
June 17, 2024 Last week, Class Size Matters and five parents launched a legal challenge to the DOE’s directive to schools regarding online learning. For more on this, see our press release, the legal papers, and articles in the Daily News and Politico. You can also listen to my interview on Talk out of School, […]
May 29, 2024 Dear all — 1- A reminder: the last two borough hearings on DOE’s ineffectual class size plan are going to be held tonight Wednesday, and tomorrow Thursday, via Zoom. Sign up here starting at 5 PM; our talking points about the positive steps the DOE should be taking instead to […]
May 22, 2024 Dear all — Just a quick reminder that Borough hearings on the DOE’s draft class size plan for next year begin tonight Wednesday, May 22 for Bronx residents via Zoom, and tomorrow Thursday for Manhattan residents. The full schedule is here: Bronx – Wednesday, May 22, 2024 (6:00pm) Manhattan – Thursday, May […]
May 16, 2024 Dear all — 1. This year’s annual Skinny awards will be held on Wed. June 12 at 6 pm. Come celebrate and honor six independent parent members of the Panel for Educational Policy, who have valiantly spoken up for the interests of our students, and who despite great odds, […]
May 8, 2024 Dear all — 1. Please sign up for our Parent Action Conference that will be held this Saturday, May 11 at 10:30 AM via Zoom. We will have two fantastic keynote speakers: law professor Natalie Gomez-Velez, the co-author of the excellent NYSED report on Mayoral control, and Sen. John Liu, […]
June 3, 2024 Dear all — I would like to invite you to the annual Class Size Matter award dinner on Wed. June 12 to support this important organization on whose board I sit. We will be honoring the independent parent members of the Panel for Educational Policy, the NYC school board, who have […]
June 6, 2024 School budgets allocations dropped today for next year, and serious problems remain. The DOE has allocated only $137M to hire more teachers for class size reduction, which is inadequate and spread too thin over too many schools. Nearly 500 schools are receiving less than $100,000, which is not enough to hire even […]
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 .
