UPDATE: 6/12/15. As of this afternoon at 6:00 PM, 22 Council members have now signed onto the letter: Council Members Barron, Chin, Cornegy, Cumbo, Dromm, Garodnick, Gentile, Johnson, Kallos,
Koslowitz, King, Lander, Levin, Levine, Menchaca, Mendez, Reynoso, Rodriguez, Rosenthal, Torres, Treygar, and
Vallone. If your CM has NOT signed please call him/her TODAY and ask
why not! You can find their contact info here.
As you know, NYC public schools are badly overcrowded and becoming more so every day. The city's capital plan for schools is underfunded by DOE's own admission, and if not expanded will likely lead to even worse overcrowding. The need for more schools is especially true as the Mayor is rapidly expanding preK and has a plan to encourage the building of 160,000 market rate housing units and 200,000 affordable units, which will further accelerate enrollment growth.
To address this crisis, Public Advocate Letitia James has written a letter to the Chancellor and the Mayor, urging them to double the school seats in the capital plan and to appoint a Commission to improve the efficiency of school planning and siting. Class Size Matters and many CEC leaders have signed onto this letter, as well as Daniel Dromm, Chair of the NYC Council Education Committee and Michael Mulgrew, UFT President. The letter is posted here. Here is a fact sheet about this issue. Since that letter was sent yesterday, four more Council Members have signed on: CMs Barron, Gentile, Johnson and King.
If your Council Members are not listed above, please call them TODAY, and ask them if they will sign onto the letter from the Public Advocate and Class Size Matters, urging the Mayor and Chancellor to alleviate the school overcrowding crisis by expanding the capital plan. You can easily find their phone numbers by entering your address here. If the city fails to expand the plan, your children and thousands of others are likely to suffer even worse overcrowding and larger class sizes in the future.
And please, whatever message you hear back, whether positive or negative, let me know by responding to this message. The Council will vote on the capital plan by the end of this month, so this is an urgent issue.
Thanks as ever for your support!
As you know, NYC public schools are badly overcrowded and becoming more so every day. The city's capital plan for schools is underfunded by DOE's own admission, and if not expanded will likely lead to even worse overcrowding. The need for more schools is especially true as the Mayor is rapidly expanding preK and has a plan to encourage the building of 160,000 market rate housing units and 200,000 affordable units, which will further accelerate enrollment growth.
To address this crisis, Public Advocate Letitia James has written a letter to the Chancellor and the Mayor, urging them to double the school seats in the capital plan and to appoint a Commission to improve the efficiency of school planning and siting. Class Size Matters and many CEC leaders have signed onto this letter, as well as Daniel Dromm, Chair of the NYC Council Education Committee and Michael Mulgrew, UFT President. The letter is posted here. Here is a fact sheet about this issue. Since that letter was sent yesterday, four more Council Members have signed on: CMs Barron, Gentile, Johnson and King.
If your Council Members are not listed above, please call them TODAY, and ask them if they will sign onto the letter from the Public Advocate and Class Size Matters, urging the Mayor and Chancellor to alleviate the school overcrowding crisis by expanding the capital plan. You can easily find their phone numbers by entering your address here. If the city fails to expand the plan, your children and thousands of others are likely to suffer even worse overcrowding and larger class sizes in the future.
And please, whatever message you hear back, whether positive or negative, let me know by responding to this message. The Council will vote on the capital plan by the end of this month, so this is an urgent issue.
Thanks as ever for your support!
I am a graduate student at the University of Maryland University College seeking my M.A.T. in Secondary Education (History). In my current course we have been assigned to interview a parent of a high school student about their thoughts on public education in general, and specifically about teacher preparation, and teacher outreach to—and relationship building with—parents. Clearly the participants on this board are very engaged on these issues. If any of you could spare a half an hour to discuss these issues with me, I would greatly appreciate it.
ReplyDeleteI can be reached at llshatzer@gmail.com.