Please contact your legislators now, urging them NOT to cut education funding next year as Gov. Cuomo threatens to do, by clicking here. Our full legislative agenda is below.
March 29, 2020 Dear folks: Hope you and your families are figuring out how to cope with all the new restrictions on life as we used to live it, as well as the new regime of remote learning – if that’s what your child’s school is trying to do. 1. Meanwhile, NY Governor Cuomo has […]
March 22, 2020 Dear all: A lot of news to catch up on. Tomorrow starts remote learning for NYC public school students. If you don’t have an online device, the Chancellor said on Friday that you can pick up written packets of suggested homework at the 400 school sites distributing food. [UPDATE: apparently these packets […]
March 15, 2020 After several weeks of resistance, Mayor de Blasio just announced that starting tomorrow, Monday March 16, NYC public schools will be closed, and will remain closed until at least April 20, to stem the rapid spread of coronavirus. For the next week, schools will be open only as a place for parents […]
Class Size Matters and other groups are urging the City Council to allocate $100 million towards class size reduction in next year’s education budget. Please call the Speaker’s office with this message: “As a parent [or teacher, or concerned citizen], I urge the Speaker to fight for $100 million to be targeted towards reducing class […]
Dear all, The February 28 hearings on class size were so overcrowded that many people who came did not even get in the room or have a chance to testify. Many others were unable to attend because of other reasons. But I wanted to let you know that you will have a second chance. On […]
On Friday, Feb. 28, 2020, parents, students, educators and advocates testified on the importance of reducing class size at City Hall hearings of the NYC Education Committee, chaired by Council Member Mark Treyger. Below are videos and links to written statements of some of these testimonies. The full unedited video of the hearings is here. […]
A pdf of this testimony is posted here; a video of my abbreviated remarks is here. Leonie Haimson’s Testimony before the NYC Council Education Committee on the Need to Reduce Class Size in the NYC Public Schools Feb. 28, 2020 Thank you Chair Treyger for holding these important hearings today on a subject that is […]
See the video of Regent Kathleen Cashin’s observations about class size which she made during the City Council hearings on Feb. 28 about what happened when she lowered class size in the District 23 schools when she was Superintendent. As she puts it, when you reduce class size, the “whole world changes.” She explained how […]
For immediate release Friday, Feb. 28, 2020 Contact: Leonie Haimson; [email protected]; 917-435-9329. Council hearings on class size so overcrowded that scores of parents and advocates are turned away Today, from 10 AM to 3:45 PM, the City Council Education Committee held hearings on class size at City Hall. So many people showed up to testify that it was […]
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 .
