Oct. 27, 2021 Video of Leonie Haimson is above, testifying on behalf of Intro 2374 at the Oct. 26 NYC Council hearings. Class Size Matters written testimony is below. The bill would effectively lower class size by enlarging the per student space required in classrooms. The testimony and videos of some of the other witnesses […]
Oct. 15, 2021 Thanks to all of you who called the Speaker’s office, urging him to schedule hearings on the classroom capacity bill that would phase in smaller classes, Intro 2374, introduced by the Speaker Corey Johnson and Council Education Chair Mark Treyger. Yesterday it was announced that Council hearings would be held on this […]
Oct. 14 Update: The City Council Education Committee hearings for Intro 2374 are now scheduled for Oct. 27, 2021, starting at 10 AM. You can sign up to speak remotely here or submit testimony. Please do! Oct. 13, 2021 Dear all: 1. Exciting news! More than half of all City Council members have now signed […]
Testimony on Mayoral control before the Assembly Education Committee. Most large districts whose schools suffered under Mayoral control including Detroit, Newark, and now Chicago have gone back to elected school boards. Why shouldn’t NYC voters have the same rights?
Sept. 30, 2021 I was asked to provide a brief summary of de Blasio’s educational record for a forum sponsored by CUNY’s School of Labor and Urban Studies today, with other presenters on other issues listed to the left. My presentation was limited to five minutes so I couldn’t present the entire power point, and […]
Sept. 1, 2021 City Council hearings on DOE’s school reopening plan are being held today. Here and embedded below is the testimony that Class Size Matters will give.
The DOE has proposed a Contracts for Excellence spending plan that is completely inadequate to provide an equitable or adequate education to NYC kids — contrary to the intent of the law, which was passed to fulfill the goals of the CFE lawsuit. The DOE claims that the state has allocated no more funding to […]
Aug. 9, 2021 Dear all — 1. At this point it is uncertain as to whether Congress will include funds for school construction, repair and upgrades in their infrastructure reconciliation package, even though the need for ventilation and social distancing in our classrooms is more critical than ever. The American Society of […]
August 9, 2021 Below and attached are talking points in English and in Spanish on how parents and teachers directly or through your School Leadership Teams should urge your principal to use available funds to lower class size and to help ensure social distancing next year, for the sake of stronger academic support and health […]
July 29, 2021 7:04 PM Exciting news! This morning, the City Council announced a new bill that would require radically smaller class sizes starting in the fall of 2022, by amending the NYC administrative code to allow only one student per 35 square feet of classroom space, on health and safety grounds. This would only […]
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 .
