Dec. 12, 2024 Today, we provided a briefing to the Chancellors Parent Advisory Council on the serious problems with the DOE’s implementation of class size reduction, as required by the class size law. Their most glaring failing is the fact that there has been no move to provide space for overcrowded or overenrolled schools. In […]
December 4, 2024 Please sign our petition now to the DOE Chancellor and UFT and CSA Presidents, urging them to develop and implement a real, multi-year plan so that all schools will be able to lower class size within the timeframe mandated by the law. Right now, DOE is proposing to exempt all overcrowded schools […]
Nov. 2024 We have drafted the following resolution for PTAs, SLTs or CECs to consider, urging the DOE to create and implement a actual multi-year class size plan, that would enable schools to cap enrollment at lower levels if that will be necessary for them to cap class sizes at the required levels, and for […]
Oct. 21, 2024 Check out the letter here and below, sent today on behalf of Class Size Matters and the Parent Coalition for Student Privacy to the DOE’s chief privacy officer Dennis Doyle, copied to the Chancellor and the members of the Panel for Educational Policy, about the unacceptable way the DOE now proposes to […]
October 17, 2024 See our letter to Commissioner Rosa here and below, that provides yet more evidence that DOE has no actual plan to lower class size as the state law requires. It points out how the number of students in overcrowded schools has only increased since the class size law was passed, and how […]
Sept. 25, 2024 1.Big news – Chancellor Banks is resigning as of Dec. 31, 2024, to be replaced by Melissa Aviles-Ramos, current Deputy Chancellor for Family Engagement. This follows the announced resignations of other top officials, including the Police Commissioner and Commissioner of Health, in the last twelve days. The whirlwind of scandals and investigations […]
This FAQ also available as a pdf here. Updated Sept. 13, 2024 On June 2, 2022, the NY State Legislature passed a bill to by a vote of 59-4 in the Senate and 147-2 in the Assembly, requiring that NYC schools implement a five-year class size reduction plan beginning in the fall of 2022. On […]
Sept. 5, 2024 Welcome back to a new school year! This is the second year of the legally required phase-in of smaller classes in NYC public schools, and though the Chancellor and others claim that they will meet the goal of 40% classes compliant with the class size limits, this is still uncertain, especially as […]
September 9, 2024 Below and here is our recent testimony on Foundation Aid. We point out how over the past 24 years, the DOE has repeatedly supplanted of state aid meant for class size reduction , and caution that creating any dedicated funding stream for that purpose for NYC as part of the Foundation Aid […]
August 7, 2024 An updated version of the NYC School Capital plan for FY 2025-2029 was posted by the School Construction Authority on July 30, 2024. It contains an additional $2 billion for new capacity, as required by the state budget, and an additional 10,382 school seats, for a total of 33,417 seats. However, the […]
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 .
