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 […]
Earlier today, City Council Education Committee Chair Mark Treyger and Council Speaker Corey Johnson announced and introduced legislation which would effectively reduce class sizes by updating NYC’s Administrative Code. The bill (Int. No. 2374) will raise the minimum per person classroom space to 35 square feet per student from the current 20 square feet for grades […]
July 29, 2021 The DOE is holding borough hearings on their proposed Contracts for Excellence plan from Aug. 2-Aug. 5 at 6:30 PM. The location of these hearings and the proposed plan are posted here. You can also send your comments on the plan by emailing ContractsForExcellence@schools.nyc.gov Below are some questions you can ask and […]
Update: The DOE has now posted a School Allocation Memo 49 with guidance for this $18 million class size reduction “pilot” in 72 elementary schools, as well as a spreadsheet listing actual amounts per school. [The spreadsheet allotments only add up to $14.3 million, but perhaps that’s because the DOE is covering the rest of […]
July 8, 2021 Instead of the $250 million the City Council proposed should be invested in lowering class size, Mayor de Blasio would agree to only $18 million, for a “pilot” project in a few schools. This despite the fact that there will be a crying need for smaller classes next year, both for social […]
July 20, 2021 Late Friday, the DOE finally posted a schedule for Contract for Excellence (C4E) borough hearings, in response to a letter from Wendy Lecker of the Ed Law Center and I sent nearly a month ago, urging them to schedule timely hearings and to take public input seriously in their plan, as the […]
See our letter written with the Education Law Center to the DOE Chancellor about the need to hold prompt hearings to gain input from parents and others on how the C4E funding will be spent next year. This public input is legally required and is especially critical now, given that our schools are finally getting […]
Sign the petition asking for a moratorium on the use of AI until rigorous safeguards are established to protect student privacy, learning and the environment.
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, Daniel Alicea and Kaliris Salas Ramirez interview guests and discuss issues affecting public schools in NYC, the state level and nationally. You can stream or subscribe to the podcast here at Simplecast; or at iTunes, Spotify or Google.
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.
