June 26, 2020 Dear friends– Thank you so much sending a message via Action Network to the Mayor & Chancellor to let them know school budgets next year must be increased rather than cut to ensure the health & safety of students and staff, and to provide smaller classes & sufficient support to kids who will need […]
June 24, 2020 Friends– Update: The NYC budget is due June 30, a week from today. This morning, Mayor de Blasio announced that he is considering another $1 billion in cuts, which would necessitate the layoff of an additional 22,000 municipal workers. PLEASE, send a letter to the Mayor and Chancellor today, if you haven’t already, urging him […]
Friends — Please send a letter to the Speaker Johnson today and the Education and Finance Council chairs to say that the DOE budget should NOT be cut next year, as the Mayor has proposed; but instead, school funding should be increased so they can hire more teachers, counselors, nurses, custodial staff as well as purchasing the supplies to ensure that […]
June 7, 2020 Dear friends — Class Size Matters and NYC Kids PAC are holding a conference on Saturday, June 20 from 11 AM to 1 PM called Sharing Ideas & Solutions for Reopening Schools: The Path Forward. The conference will be co-sponsored by CEC 4, CEC 8, CEC 14, CEC 17 and CEC 28. Please save the date! […]
Class Size Matters and NYC Kids PAC stand in solidarity with protesters in New York City and around the country to demand justice for George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Sean Reed, Tony McDade, Eric Garner and all other Black victims who have tragically died at the hands of the police. We know the role […]
The following is my written testimony on the education budget and five-year capital plan, detailing the additional staffing and space that will be needed for schools to reopen safely next year. Smaller class sizes are always of concern, but are especially critical now given the need for social distancing in light of the COVID-19 crisis. […]
The need to reduce class size next fall to improve health and safety and strengthen academic and emotional support and how this could be achieved through budget savings Download the PDF version here. Shorter version in the Gotham Gazette, “To Reopen Schools, The Mayor Needs Smaller Classes — Here’s $570 Million in Potential Department of […]
Dear Friends– 1. I had a piece in the Gotham Gazette yesterday that explains how schools should not reopen next fall without a plan to reduce class size, to provide both the social distancing necessary for health and safety and the academic and emotional support that students will need to make up for the […]
Dear Friends — A quick note to update you on a few issues: 1- In my previous email, I had the wrong date for this week’s meeting of the Panel for Educational Policy when a bunch of highly questionable, potentially wasteful contracts will be voted upon – it is Thursday May 7 at 6 PM. DOE’s […]
Dear Friends, 1. On Wed., the Panel for Educational Policy was scheduled to meet and vote on several huge contracts, including school busing for $200 million for March and another $200 million for April, though all buses have been idle since mid-March. The DOE had told Panel members they were legally obligated to pay 85% of […]
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 .
