On Thursday, the full House of Representatives voted to approve massive cuts to the federal education budget, including the complete elimination of the $2 billion Title II program that provides funds to districts to enhance teacher quality and reduce class size.
In NYC, the entire Title II amount is spent on keeping about 1000 teachers on staff to prevent further class size increases.
Please call your Senators today -- tell them to retain full funding for Title II and class size reduction in the education budget! Their DC phone numbers can be found here. If their phones are busy, here's how to send a free fax.
On Tuesday just two days before, the AFT released a new nationwide poll of 1200 parents, showing that most parents care deeply about increasing funding to their public schools and reducing class size. Here are some of the results:
1. Turns out the top choice of most parents is a good quality neighborhood school that they can send their kids to rather than more "choice" -- by more than two to one.
2. Parents believe that the most important problems facing our public schools are inadequate funding, too much emphasis on standardized tests, and large classes; way behind at number 8 is not enough "choice."
In terms of specific improvements that parents want for their children's schools, they would like expanded access to career and technical education and smaller classes; third is more resources to struggling neighborhood schools.
Unsurprisingly, parents trust teachers far more than they trust Donald Trump, Betsy DeVos or hedge fund managers to have the right ideas for public education -- given the fact that these individuals want to privatize our public schools in the guise of expanding "choice" rather than support and improve the schools we have:
In NYC, the entire Title II amount is spent on keeping about 1000 teachers on staff to prevent further class size increases.
Please call your Senators today -- tell them to retain full funding for Title II and class size reduction in the education budget! Their DC phone numbers can be found here. If their phones are busy, here's how to send a free fax.
On Tuesday just two days before, the AFT released a new nationwide poll of 1200 parents, showing that most parents care deeply about increasing funding to their public schools and reducing class size. Here are some of the results:
1. Turns out the top choice of most parents is a good quality neighborhood school that they can send their kids to rather than more "choice" -- by more than two to one.
2. Parents believe that the most important problems facing our public schools are inadequate funding, too much emphasis on standardized tests, and large classes; way behind at number 8 is not enough "choice."
In terms of specific improvements that parents want for their children's schools, they would like expanded access to career and technical education and smaller classes; third is more resources to struggling neighborhood schools.
The full results of the poll, including subgroups responses, are here; meanwhile, please call your Senators today or send them a free fax!
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