Oct. 28, 2021 Much of the testimony yesterday at the City Council was compelling about the importance of lowering class size and the need to pass Intro 2374 for the sake of NYC students. Class Size Matters testimony is here. Testimony of Michael Mulgrew, UFT President, is here. An article about these hearings is here. […]
Oct. 27, 2021 Video of Leonie Haimson is above, testifying on behalf of Intro 2374 at the Oct. 26 NYC Council hearings. Class Size Matters written testimony is below. The bill would effectively lower class size by enlarging the per student space required in classrooms. The testimony and videos of some of the other witnesses […]
The original 2007 DOE Instructional Footprint, used to guide space allocation and changes in school utilization including co-locations, assumed class sizes of twenty students per class in grades K-3, and 25 students in grades 4-5 in non-Title One schools. (It did not say what class sizes were assumed for Title One schools). In 2009, however, […]
Oct. 15, 2021 Thanks to all of you who called the Speaker’s office, urging him to schedule hearings on the classroom capacity bill that would phase in smaller classes, Intro 2374, introduced by the Speaker Corey Johnson and Council Education Chair Mark Treyger. Yesterday it was announced that Council hearings would be held on this […]
Oct. 14 Update: The City Council Education Committee hearings for Intro 2374 are now scheduled for Oct. 27, 2021, starting at 10 AM. You can sign up to speak remotely here or submit testimony. Please do! Oct. 13, 2021 Dear all: 1. Exciting news! More than half of all City Council members have now signed […]
Sept. 30, 2021 I was asked to provide a brief summary of de Blasio’s educational record for a forum sponsored by CUNY’s School of Labor and Urban Studies today, with other presenters on other issues listed to the left. My presentation was limited to five minutes so I couldn’t present the entire power point, and […]
Sept. 2, 2021 1. Tomorrow, Friday Sept. 3 is the last day to submit your comments on DOE’s Contract for Excellence proposal, which allocates not a single cent towards lowering class size — even though this was a central issue that led the court to decide in the CFE case that NYC children were denied […]
Sept. 8, 2021 Schools reopen next Monday, Sept. 13, only five days away. Meanwhile, over the weekend I had an oped in Gotham Gazette pointing out the many serious weaknesses in NYC’s school reopening plan. Please check it out. Here it is in Spanish. Please also read this terrific oped in today’s NY Daily News […]
Sept. 28, 2021 This Thursday Sept. 30 at noon, I will be speaking on de Blasio’s education record and legacy at a CUNY forum entitled A ‘Tale of Two Cities’ Revisited: The Social Democracy Experiments of the de Blasio Years. To check out the other speakers and issues to be discussed and to RSVP, please […]
Sept. 1, 2021 City Council hearings on DOE’s school reopening plan are being held today. Here and embedded below is the testimony that Class Size Matters will give.
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 .
