Planning for class size reduction: presentation to Public Advocate office
March 9, 2023 See here or below, presentation provided the Public Advocate’s office.
Presentations
New proposed capital plan cuts $2.3B for new school seats compared to plan adopted in 2021
March 5, 2023 The new proposed amendment to the 5-year capital plan for schools was recently released; you can check it out here. Compared to the capital plan adopted in June 2021, the DOE/SCA wants to cut the number of new school seats to be built by 38% — or over 21,000. This is inconceivable […]
Presentation to Speaker Adams on class size/overcrowding
Here is a presentation on the class size/school overcrowding issue that we used to brief Speaker Adams’ staff earlier this month; it describes some of the challenges in terms of budgeting, space and enrollment that must be addressed if DOE is to achieve the smaller class size caps in the new state law.
Why the charter cap should NOT be raised & what should CECs and parents do about this.
Updated March 5, 2023 You can send an email to your Legislators here, in opposition to Gov. Hochul’s proposal to lift the NYC charter cap and that instead the charter law needs to be strengthened, to eliminate NYC’s onerous and unfair obligation to provide all new and expanding charter schools with space, remove loopholes which […]
State budget testimony: Mayor plans to making even more cuts to school budgets next year, despite $568 million more in state Foundation aid
Feb. 12, 2023 Below see Class Size Matters’ testimony from last week’s State education budget hearings, which describe some of the many reasons we are extremely concerned that the DOE is not prepared to meet the class size limits in the new state law, especially in the out years, given repeated cuts to school budgets, […]
Testimony on why DOE should improve its enrollment/admissions policies to better meet the goals in the new class size law
January 25, 2023 For my account of these hearings, and the disappointing testimony of Deputy Chancellor Weisberg, see the NYC Public School Parent blog here. You can also read Jenn Choi’s testimony at that link, about the hurdles students with disabilities face being admitted to schools that meet their needs and allow them to reach […]
Cuts to school budgets as of Jan. 12, 2023 compared to last year total $823 million net
January 12, 2023 Yesterday, we re-ran the numbers on the Galaxy cuts to schools for this year, and the total net cuts at this point compared to last year are now at $823 million. Fully 86% of schools have experienced cuts to their budgets totaling $893 million, averaging about $655,000 each. See the table below. […]
Meeting the Class size caps: data for District 24 and District 30
Nov. 18, 2022 Below a presentation I provided to CM Krishnan on the challenges faced by D 24 and D30 in meeting the class size caps in the new class size law
UPDATE: Trends in average NYC public school class size 2007-2022
Updated 11/18/2022. See our press release about the new class size data, which has sparked concerns among electeds, parents, teachers that the DOE is not prepared to comply with the new state law, and urging the Chancellor to form a task force as soon as possible to help develop the class size reduction plan.
Class Size/ Overcrowding Presentation for NYC Council Education chair Rita Joseph
Here is the presentation I gave Oct. 31, 2022 for CM Rita Joseph, on the new class size law and need for enhanced Council oversight and a Task Force to consider changes in DOE policies and practices to make sure that the class size benchmakrs in the new state law can be met by DOE. […]
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Talk out of School: WBAI Sunday at 7 PM EST or as a podcast
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.
Skinny award dinner honoring Rep. Jamaal Bowman!
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 .
