Testimony before the Committee on Education and Jointly with the Committee on Civil and Human Rights PDF of the testimony is here. May 1, 2019 Thank you for the opportunity to testify before you today. My name is Leonie Haimson and I’m the executive director of Class Size Matters. I would like to testify in […]
PDF version here. NYC Should Fund Class Size Reduction Now! Class Size Matters is proposing that the NYC Council allocate $200 million to be targeted to reducing class size, starting first in the early grades and in struggling schools. That amount would pay for the salaries of about 2,000 new teachers, which could reduce class […]
Dear folks, As a result of the controversy over inBloom and related issues, the NY State legislature passed Education Law §2-d in 2014, with the goal of protecting the privacy and the security of student data that schools, districts and states as well as their contractors collect and disclose. After nearly five years, the NY State Education […]
A pdf you can download of this memo is here. Agostini v Elia—The New York City C4E Class Size Case In July 2017, nine parents from each borough of New York City filed a petition with the State Commissioner of Education (“Commissioner”) charging the City Department of Education (“DOE”) with failing to reduce […]
A terrific education Town hall was held Saturday March 14 in Queens, sponsored by Jackson Heights People for Public Schools. Among the speakers: Alexandria-Ocasio Cortez, Diane Ravitch and many education advocates and elected leaders. Accounts of the event was published in Jacobin and Diane Ravitch’s blog. Here is Leonie Haimson of Class Size Matters speaking […]
PDF of this testimony here. March 15, 2019 Thank you for holding these hearings today. My name is Leonie Haimson and I am the Executive Director of Class Size Matters, a citywide advocacy organization dedicated to providing information on the benefits of smaller classes. I am also the co-chair of the Parent Coalition for Student […]
Presentation given at the terrific education forum sponsored by Jackson Heights People for Public Schools on March 16, 2019.
1. Please email your legislators TODAY to urge them to fully fund our schools but requiring stronger accountability, transparency and an actual plan that results in smaller classes in the NYC public schools, as envisioned in the original Campaign for Fiscal Equity decision. In that case, the state’s highest court concluded that NYC students were […]
See below for a one pager (pdf) you can download. Amend Mayoral control so that there is no longer a mayoral majority on the Board of Education (AKA Panel for Educational Policy) and/or make NYC Department of Education policies subject to city law and checks and balances via the NYC City Council like all other city […]
This blog post was originally posted here. PDF version is available here. Wednesday, February 27, 2019. Requiem for the Renewal schools: what went wrong? On February 26, 2019, the Mayor and the Chancellor Carranza announced an end to the Renewal program, which has cost the city $773 million since 2014. Since that time, of the 94 schools put on the list […]
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 .
