June 16, 2017 Only a few days are left in the NY legislative term, and the NY State Senate leadership and now Gov. Cuomo are pushing a deal to exchange the extension of Mayoral control in NYC for more charter schools and/or a tuition tax credit for religious and private schools. One of the bills […]
This testimony along with the Opportunity to Learn index is downloadable as a pdf here. Leonie Haimson, Class Size Matters June 6, 2017 Good evening, Regent Cashin, Regent Reyes, and Commissioner Elia. My name is Leonie Haimson and I’m the Executive Director of Class Size Matters, a non-profit organization dedicated to reducing class size in […]
Note New Venue! It’s that time of year again! Our 2017 Annual Skinny Award Dinner will be held Tuesday, June 20 at 6:30 PM at Casa La Femme, 140 Charles St., in Greenwich Village in Manhattan. We will be serving a three course dinner with wine, and will honor those individuals who gave us the […]
On May 19, 2017, Class Size Matters gave a PowerPoint presentation at the Education Reform, Communities and Social Justice: Exploring the Intersection conference held at Rutgers University. The presentation was given on privatization, online learning, and student privacy. Read below or click here for pdf.
The NYS Education Department has proposed a new school accountability system under the federal law known as ESSA (Every Student Succeeds Act). The Regents have not yet accepted this proposal and are gathering input through public hearings happening now through Friday, June 16, 2017 as listed here, starting Monday night in Staten Island and Tuesday in […]
It was just reported that Congress will vote early this week on an education budget that would cut Title IIA funds by $300 million — which are used by districts across the country to keep teachers on staff and prevent class size increases. In NYC, 100% of these funds or $101 million are spent […]
Yesterday afternoon I attended an amazing School Leadership Team meeting at Central Park East I, the renowned East Harlem progressive elementary school founded in 1974 by Debbie Meier. Since Monica Garg was appointed the principal last year, the school has devolved into angry accusations by parents, teachers and alumnae that she is intent on undermining […]
March 27, 2017 1. Right now the state budget is being negotiated. Please take a minute to send a letter to your legislators today. Tell them to fully fund the foundation formula, designed to equitably and sufficiently fund high needs schools. The letter also urges them to block the Governor’s proposal to raise the […]
April 3, 2017 1. The NY state budget is stalled and will be late for the first time in years. The deadlock appears to be related to education funding for our public schools vs. charter schools, and whether the cap on charter schools will be lifted. As usual, the Assembly Democratic majority wants to fully […]
February 26, 2017 I hope you and your family had a nice winter break. This Tuesday, the City Council will hold hearings on the need to improve school planning and siting process. When: Tues. Feb. 28 starting at 10 AM Where: Council Chambers, City Hall What: City Council joint hearings of the Education and Finance […]
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 .
