Sept.6, 2019 Welcome back to a new school year! I hope you had a great summer. 1.I have exciting news to report: I will be co-hosting a new weekly radio show on WBAI, called Talk out of School, with Carol Burris, executive director of the Network for Public Education. Our first show will be aired […]
June 2, 2019 1. On May 23, the Education Law Center appealed our lawsuit to the Appellate Court to require DOE to lower class size in all grades, in compliance with its obligations under the Contracts for Excellence law. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of nine NYC parents, Class Size Matters and AQE. We […]
A presentation for CPAC regarding school overcrowding & the new five-year Capital Plan.
The presentation below describes issues regarding the new five year capital plan 2020-2024.Among the issues is that the plan is very backloaded in that 50,000 of 57,000 seats in the plan won’t be completed until 2024 or later. Additionally, there is no estimate for need for new seats – for the first time in a […]
On Tuesday June 11 at noon, more than one hundred parents, students, advocates, elected officials and union members gathered on the steps of City Hall to urge the NYC Department of Education and the Mayor to allocate specific funding in next year’s budget towards reducing class size. Below is a video of the rally. Thanks […]
Testimony before the Committee on Education and Jointly with the Committee on Civil and Human Rights PDF of the testimony is here. May 1, 2019 Thank you for the opportunity to testify before you today. My name is Leonie Haimson and I’m the executive director of Class Size Matters. I would like to testify in […]
A pdf you can download of this memo is here. Agostini v Elia—The New York City C4E Class Size Case In July 2017, nine parents from each borough of New York City filed a petition with the State Commissioner of Education (“Commissioner”) charging the City Department of Education (“DOE”) with failing to reduce […]
PDF of this testimony here. March 15, 2019 Thank you for holding these hearings today. My name is Leonie Haimson and I am the Executive Director of Class Size Matters, a citywide advocacy organization dedicated to providing information on the benefits of smaller classes. I am also the co-chair of the Parent Coalition for Student […]
Presentation given at the terrific education forum sponsored by Jackson Heights People for Public Schools on March 16, 2019.
This fact sheet as a pdf is also available here. Enrollment and retention of high-needs students Each year, charter schools and school districts shall report on their enrollment, suspension, and attrition rates of students overall as well as in the following high needs categories: students with disabilities, English language learners, and students who are eligible […]
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 .
