Oct. 21, 2022 Dear all: 1. Last spring, the Legislature overwhelming passed a class size bill, S9460/ A10498, requiring that NYC implement a five-year class size reduction plan beginning in the fall of 2022. On Sept. 8, 2022, Gov. Kathy Hochul signed the bill into law, based upon an agreement that the five-year phase-in period […]
On June 2, 2022 the Legislature overwhelming passed the class size bill, S9460/ A10498, by a vote of 59-4 in the Senate and 147-2 in the Assembly. The bill required that NYC implement a five-year class size reduction plan beginning in the fall of 2022. On Sept. 8, 2022, Gov. Kathy Hochul signed the bill […]
May 20, 2022 Dear folks — 1. The State Legislature will be in session only for twenty more days. Please call your Legislators today and urge them to pass the bills that would require NYC to phase in smaller classes in all grades. Tell them to support and bring to the floor for […]
April 27, 2022 Yesterday, Mayor Adams announced his executive budget, and though he he added $1.2 billion for various initiatives, including even more funding for the police, he is still planning to cut school budgets by $375 million over the next three years, which combined with unidentified school budget “efficiency savings” of this year, would […]
Since this post was written, the Education Law Center has released a similar analysis . According to an estimate from the Independent Budget Office, NYC schools have lost more than $2 billion in state aid between 2012 and 2020, because they are the only district in the state that is exempted from receiving state transitional […]
See the letter below, sent today to NY state legislators from Class Size Matters, the Alliance for Quality Education, the Education Law Center and NYC Kids PAC, urging them to require NYC to lower class size in their one-house budgets, so that the additional state funding our schools are due to receive will be invested […]
November 17, 2021 Este mensaje está en español aquí. The good news is that with your help, 39 Council Members out of 49 have now signed onto Int. 2374, the bill that would require class sizes be reduced in NYC schools. This is a veto-proof majority, so that if passed, the Mayor could not block […]
Este mensaje es in Espanol aqui. Nov. 11, 2021 Intro 2367, the bill that would require smaller classes be phased in over three years, now has 36 out of 50 Council Members as co-sponsors. We hope this bill will come to a vote in the next ten days or so. 14 Council Members have not […]
Please ask your legislators to support S.6296 and A. 7447, the bills that would update NYC’s obligation to lower class size by clicking here. The bills have growing support, but time is short! We only have less than two weeks before the Legislature adjourns for the year. Memos of support for these bills have now […]
July 21, 2020 Last week, Governor Cuomo, the State Department of Health, and the NY State Education Department all came out with detailed guidance on what measures schools should take to reopen in the fall to ensure health and safety as well as provide instructional and emotional support to their students. If the COVID positivity rates of all […]
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 .
