July 29, 2025 Yesterday, we sent our detailed critique to Education Commissioner Rosa of the DOE’s submitted class size plan for the 2025-2026 school year. As in earlier “plans”, it lacks the critical information required by law, including specific data about where additional staff and space will be created so that the mandated benchmarks of 60% of classes […]
July 9, 2025 Below and here is our detailed critique of the DOE’s draft Class Size Reduction Plan for the 2025-2026 school year, along with a list of signers including many parent leaders, and an appendix with charts backing up these figures. These figures are also posted here. Thanks to those of you who signed […]
July 9, 2025 There will be hearings on the city’s class size plan July 10-June 16, 2025. Each session starts at 6 PM via Zoom; but you can start logging on at 5 PM at https://learndoe.org/contractforexcellence The list of hearings by borough is below but you can attend ANY of these meetings, wherever you live, […]
June 9, 2025 The mandated hearings on the city’s class size plan for the 2025-2026 school year begin tomorrow. The Bronx hearing already occurred last week, but you can attend any of these meetings wherever you live, teach or your child attends schools. They each begin at 6 PM, but you can log in as […]
Nov. 25, 2024 See below; and here. Our testimony to the NYC Council Health committee about our continuing concerns with the privacy violations of Talkspace, with whom the NYC Dept. of Health has a $26 million contract to provide free mental health counseling to teens; “
March 14, 2025 Here and below is the testimony that Michael Rance, our Research Director, gave on behalf of Class Size Matters at the preliminary budget hearing yesterday. Our testimony highlighted the many failings of DOE and the School Construction Authority in delivering a multi-year plan capable of meeting the benchmarks in the class size […]
Feb. 20, 2025 Today we provided testimony at NYC Council Education hearings, in opposition to the DOE plan to to cancel the leases of five Community Based Organizations that provide Early Education services in Brooklyn and Queens. During the hearing, the DOE officials said they intend in the future to cancel contracts with CBO providers […]
Nov. 2024 – updated Jan. 2025 We have drafted the following resolution for CECs, Community Boards and other groups to consider, urging the DOE to create and implement a actual multi-year class size plan, that would enable schools to cap enrollment at lower levels if that will be necessary for them to cap class sizes […]
September 9, 2024 Below and here is our recent testimony on Foundation Aid. We point out how over the past 24 years, the DOE has repeatedly supplanted of state aid meant for class size reduction , and caution that creating any dedicated funding stream for that purpose for NYC as part of the Foundation Aid […]
August 7, 2024 An updated version of the NYC School Capital plan for FY 2025-2029 was posted by the School Construction Authority on July 30, 2024. 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 of 33,417 seats. However, the […]
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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We honored 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. 
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.
