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In February, we blew the whistle when we noticed a two
billion dollar internet contract that was going to be awarded to a contractor
who had been involved in a corrupt kickback scheme just a few years ago. After I alerted the media, the NYC Department
of Education hurriedly renegotiated the contract down to $1 billion. The Panel for Educational Policy then voted
to approve the contract 8-1, but luckily, the Mayor’s office took notice of the
controversy and cancelled the contract – the first time this has happened in
the history of the DOE.
In March, we helped organize “Protect our schools” rallies throughout
the city, where thousands of teachers, parents, and students formed human chains
around their schools, to protest the
Governor’s threatened budget cuts and damaging charter takeover proposals.
In April, we won a lawsuit we had filed against the DOE to
ensure that School Leadership Team meetings remain open to the public. Justice Peter Moulton agreed with us and the
Public Advocate that DOE was violating the law by closing these meetings, and
that SLTs, half of whose members are parents at every NYC public school, have more
than “advisory” powers. Though the DOE
is unfortunately appealing his decision, we are confident we will eventually prevail
on appeal.
Our analysis of school overcrowding has been widely cited by
other groups and officials, showing that there is a need for at least 100,000
seats in the school capital plan to alleviate overcrowding and address expected
enrollment growth. We are spearheading a
campaign to convince the Mayor to double the number of school seats to be built,
and to create a taskforce or commission to improve the accuracy and efficiency
of school planning, which lags far behind residential development. In June, the Public Advocate, twenty-two
Council Members and many parent leaders sent a letter to the Mayor and
Chancellor, urging them to do take these important steps.
Along with NYC Kids PAC, we released an Education report
card for the Mayor in the spring, in which he received mixed grades in several
categories because he has failed to fulfill his promises in many critical areas,
including on class size. This fall, we co-hosted a Parent Action Conference in
Brooklyn, with workshops on many topics ranging from the Common Core, testing
and Mayoral control to School Leadership Teams and overcrowding.
When the DOE’s class size data was released last month, we
reported that the number of students in extremely large class sizes in the
early grades has nearly doubled since 2011, with more than 48,000 children in
classes of 30 or more. Our findings were
cited in the Daily News and in an editorial in AMNY.
Our City Council testimony on Renewal schools
was also widely covered in the media,
revealing that despite repeated DOE promises, class sizes have not be reduced in nearly
half of all the Renewal schools, and the vast majority continue to have classes
of thirty students or more.
The Parent Coalition for Student Privacy, the national
organization we co-founded in 2014 following our defeat of inBloom Inc., continues
to make waves. Our members wrote op-eds and were quoted
widely in the media, most recently about Google’s data-mining of students and
Mark Zuckerberg’s intention to spend billions to expand risky and unproven
online learning. At the same time, we
are working to inform parents about what they should demand in terms of privacy
and security protections of their children’s data from their schools, districts
and state.
As part of our work with our state-wide coalition, NY State Allies for Education, we urged parents to opt out of the defective Common Core
exams, leading to an unprecedented 240,000 students refusing to take the state tests
last spring. The opt out movement and
nationwide rebellion against the flawed Common Core standards has led to
significant revisions in the federal education law, and has caused a
growing recognition among policymakers that it is wrong to use badly
designed tests and inappropriate standards to label kids, teachers, and schools
as failing.
But many challenges remain. The need for student privacy protections
is more critical than ever, especially as the use of digital learning and
data-mining software is being promoted by the ed tech industry and government
officials. Meanwhile, in NYC, excessive class sizes and school overcrowding
continues to worsen, without any plan or commitment on the part of the
Chancellor or the Mayor to seriously address the problem.
Please help us fight for students to be provided with a
quality well-rounded education, including smaller classes and real personalized
learning, rather than instruction delivered via computers. We need your help to advocate for every student’s
right to privacy, and for parents to have a voice in how their children’s schools
are run.
Thank you immensely if you’ve given to Class Size Matters before
and please give again as generously as you can. Just donate online at by clicking here. If you’d
prefer to send a check, address the envelope to Class Size Matters, 124 Waverly
Pl., New York, NY 10011.
Have a happy holiday and wonderful New Year,
Leonie Haimson, Executive
Director
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