August 6, 2019 Dear Speaker Johnson and members of the City Council: We are very disappointed in the process and outcome of the School Siting Task Force, created by Local Law No. 168 in Sept. 2018. The law mandated the creation of an “interagency task force” to facilitate the acquisition of publicly and privately-owned […]
A presentation for CPAC regarding school overcrowding & the new five-year Capital Plan.
The presentation below describes issues regarding the new five year capital plan 2020-2024.Among the issues is that the plan is very backloaded in that 50,000 of 57,000 seats in the plan won’t be completed until 2024 or later. Additionally, there is no estimate for need for new seats – for the first time in a […]
On Thursday May 23, 2019 the Education Law Center filed an appeal on behalf of nine NYC parents, Class Size Matters and the Alliance for Quality Education, urging the Appellate court to order the Department of Education to reduce class size in all grades as the Contracts for Excellence law requires. Our original lawsuit, Agostini vs. Elia, was filed […]
The presentations below discuss district and citywide class size trends. Overall, class sizes are higher than they were in 2007 and remain above Contract for Excellence goals. Citywide Powerpoint District 6 Powerpoint District 13 and 17 Powerpoint District 21 Powerpoint District 28 Powerpoint District 24 and 30 Powerpoint If you would like class size information […]
List of PDFs of approved resolutions urging City Council to fund class sizes here: CEC 2 CEC 21 Education Council Consortium resolution urging City Council to fund class size reduction Approved May 10, 2019 Whereas in the landmark Campaign for Fiscal Equity case, the state’s highest court concluded that smaller classes were necessary for NYC […]
Testimony before the Committee on Education and Jointly with the Committee on Civil and Human Rights PDF of the testimony is here. May 1, 2019 Thank you for the opportunity to testify before you today. My name is Leonie Haimson and I’m the executive director of Class Size Matters. I would like to testify in […]
PDF version here. NYC Should Fund Class Size Reduction Now! Class Size Matters is proposing that the NYC Council allocate $200 million to be targeted to reducing class size, starting first in the early grades and in struggling schools. That amount would pay for the salaries of about 2,000 new teachers, which could reduce class […]
A pdf you can download of this memo is here. Agostini v Elia—The New York City C4E Class Size Case In July 2017, nine parents from each borough of New York City filed a petition with the State Commissioner of Education (“Commissioner”) charging the City Department of Education (“DOE”) with failing to reduce […]
PDF of this testimony here. March 15, 2019 Thank you for holding these hearings today. My name is Leonie Haimson and I am the Executive Director of Class Size Matters, a citywide advocacy organization dedicated to providing information on the benefits of smaller classes. I am also the co-chair of the Parent Coalition for Student […]
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.
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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.
