March 1, 2024 The DOE performance at the class size hearing yesterday at the City Council was very depressing. Despite urging by Council Education Chair Rita Joseph and other Council Members, Senators Liu and Robert Jackson, UFT leaders, and many parents, DOE officials refused to commit to any steps to lower class size. Instead, COO […]
Feb. 7, 2024 Here and below is our Feb. 1 testimony to the State legislature on the budget, and how DOE is doing nothing to comply with the new class size law. In fact, as we point out below, class sizes have increased in most schools over the last two years, a trend that is […]
Feb. 6, 2024 Below is the presentation I gave last night to the Education Committee of the NYC Bar Association, on the history and the myths surrounding Mayoral control. Below that is my longer testimony on Mayoral control to the State Education Department, that goes into more depth on these issues. NYSED is supposed to […]
Jan. 30, 2024 The deadline to submit your views on Mayoral control is tomorrow, Wed. January 31, at 5 PM. You can upload your testimony here. The borough hearings were very well attended, with the overwhelming number of parents, teachers and community members who spoke vehemently opposed to the continuation of mayoral control. You can […]
Below is a draft resolution for CECs and other community and advocacy organizations to consider passing, urging the DOE to adopt the recommendations in the report of the Class Size Working Group and begin to lower class size in compliance with the class size law. So far, resolutions urging the DOE to implement plans to […]
December 11, 2023 Our testimony at today’s NYC Council Finance hearings about how the Mayor’s proposed cuts to education would prevent the DOE from complying with the class size law and likely cause even sharper class size increases than students experienced over the last two years. Also available here.
Update Jan. 5, 2024: As we requested, the mandated timeline was put into the final regulations. November 8, 2023 Below and here see comments from Class Size Matters, Alliance for Quality Education, and the Education Law Center on the proposed State regulations concerning the public process required for the development and submission of the new […]
Oct. 16, 2023 Below and here is the letter sent today to Commissioner Rosa and the Board of Regents from Class Size Matters, the Education Law Center and AQE, critiquing the DOE revised class size plan submitted to the State on Sept. 29 and asking the Commissioner and the Board of Regents to require a […]
Sept. 20, 2023 See below; testimony here and below for today’s NYC Council hearings on the dangers to both privacy and the quality of education of DOE’s plans to expand the use of online learning. See also our presentation last night on the many ways DOE is putting student data privacy at risk and not […]
August 28 update: The Daily News published an article about our letter and the fact that DOE omitted its only promise for the coming school year from its revised class size plan, and no longer promises that schools that complied with the class size caps in the law last year would receive support and funding […]
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 .
