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 […]
March 9, 2017 In December of 2016, President Obama signed into law the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), which replaced NCLB and requires states to develop a new accountability system for their schools. ESSA mandates that schools be rated mostly on academic factors, including test scores and graduation rates. But it also allows the inclusion […]
1. I will be speaking on the national and state push to privatize public education tomorrow Saturday, March 4, 2017 at the Westchester-East Putnam PTA Advocacy Breakfast. The event is free; just RSVP to magerbxv@gmail.com What: Westchester-East Putnam PTA Advocacy Breakfast Where: The Education House, 5 Homeside Lane, White Plains, NY When: Saturday, […]
On Tuesday, Feb. 28, the NYC Council held joint hearings of the Education and Finance Committees on the myriad problems with the city’s dysfunctional process of school planning and siting. Many parents, students and advocates pointed out how the capital plan is underfunded, the enrollment projections inaccurate, school siting too slow — all resulting in […]
2017 Presentations on school overcrowding and capital plan Citywide District 1 District 2 District 3 District 4 District 5 District 6 District 7 District 8 District 9 District 10 District 11 District 12 District 13 District 14 District 15 District 16 District 17 District 18 District 19 District 20 District 21 District 22 District 23 […]
February 8, 2017 Yesterday, the US Senate approved Betsy DeVos to be the US Secretary of Education as we had feared, with Mike Pence casting the tie-breaking vote. Though disappointing it was in its way historic: the only time in US history that a Cabinet secretary has needed the vote of the Vice President to […]
January 6, 2017 1. Senate hearings on the nomination of Betsy DeVos to become Secretary of Education will be held Wednesday, January 11. As I explain in this month’s Indypendent, she is the most unqualified person every to be nominated to this position and is out to wreck our public schools. Please call your […]
Please join us for a virtual Class Size Briefing this Sunday June 28th, where we will speak about the changes to the class size law, point out flaws in the DOE's proposed plan for next year, and provide everyone with strategies for advocating for smaller classes for all NYC students!
Sign the petition asking for a moratorium on the use of AI until rigorous safeguards are established to protect student privacy, learning and the environment.
Click to see our presentation!
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, Daniel Alicea and Kaliris Salas Ramirez interview guests and discuss issues affecting public schools in NYC, the state level and nationally. You can stream or subscribe to the podcast here at Simplecast; or at iTunes, Spotify or Google.
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.
