March 20, 2022 Today Class Size Matters released a new class size report, entitled “What has happened to class size this year and what will happen to class size if the Mayor’s cuts are enacted?” The report shows significant and highly beneficial decreases in average class size this year citywide due to enrollment decline, though […]
Since this post was written, the Education Law Center has released a similar analysis . According to an estimate from the Independent Budget Office, NYC schools have lost more than $2 billion in state aid between 2012 and 2020, because they are the only district in the state that is exempted from receiving state transitional […]
Below is the memo of support for S7666A and A8801 that we just sent the bill sponsors, Sen. Liu and AM Benedetto. Organizations should send in their own memos of support for this important bill.
For immediate release: Feb. 15, 2022 Contact: Leonie Haimson, [email protected]; 917-435-9329 Education advocates and parents speak out against appointment of Joe Belluck to the Panel for Educational Policy The news that Joe Belluck, chair of the SUNY charter committee, is going to be appointed to the NYC Board of Education, otherwise known as the […]
See the letter below, sent today to NY state legislators from Class Size Matters, the Alliance for Quality Education, the Education Law Center and NYC Kids PAC, urging them to require NYC to lower class size in their one-house budgets, so that the additional state funding our schools are due to receive will be invested […]
Feb. 10, 2022 Accurate data on class size is nearly impossible to find in many districts across the country. The Office of Civil Rights of the US Dept. of Education is asking the public what additional data they should collect, with a deadline of tomorrow Friday Feb. 11 at 5 PM. If you’d like to […]
January 26, 2022 Today the state budget hearings are being held for education. Below are the testimonies submitted by Class Size Matters and the Education Law Center, mostly focused on class size. Clearly the Contracts for Excellence process is broken, with non-compliance by DOE and lax enforcement by the State Education Department. This probably needs […]
January 13, 2022 Check out the letter below and here from the Education Law Center, Alliance for Quality Education and Class Size Matters on the inadequate DOE proposed Contract for Excellence plan for the current school year, which is not aligned with the law, as well as the faulty schedule of hearings and public comment […]
December 29, 2021 Dear friend – As a historian, I have studied reform in NYC and in cities across the nation. Reform usually means shaking up the system. Centralize, decentralize, recentralize. Reorganize the bureaucracy, put the mayor in control, change the decision-making structure. Hire consultants, hire data analysts, hire coaches. Or reform means outsource the […]
December 14, 2021 Despite the crying need for smaller classes in NYC public schools, and the fact that Int. 2374 had 41 co-sponsors, the class size bill is still being blocked by Speaker Johnson and will not come to a vote this session. When asked about this last week by NY1 reporter Jill Jorgensen, 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 .
