Urge your NY state legislators to put class size caps for NYC into the state budget!

Today Class Size Matters, the Alliance for Quality Education, the Education Law Center and NYC Kids PAC sent the below letter to state legislators, urging them to include class size caps in their one-house budgets, so that the additional state funding our schools are due to receive will be invested in providing NYC students with their right to a sound basic education. 

If you agree, please send your own letter to your state legislators by clicking here.  Thanks! 

NYC parents and advocates frustrated and angry with results of this year’s state budget for our schools

For immediate release: April 1, 2019

Contact: Naila Rosario, nailarosario@gmail.com,  917-865-5578

Leonie Haimson, leoniehaimson@gmail.com, 917-435-9329

 NYC parents and advocates frustrated and angry with results of this year’s state budget for our schools

Naila Rosario, President of NYC Kids PAC, said, “We’re very disappointed that the Legislature and the Governor have decided to renew NYC mayoral control for another three years with only minor tweaks, enabling one-man rule to continue.  An additional member to the Panel for Educational Policy will be elected by Community Education Councils and another will be appointed by the mayor, who will keep his supermajority and be allowed to fire any of his appointees at will, as long as he gives a ten-day warning explaining his decision. As a result, the Mayor’s unilateral authority will have no effective checks and balances.  NYC parents, local elected officials and community members will remain as disempowered as before.  There is no reason that something as important as the future of NYC school governance should be rolled into the budget, rather than carefully considered, debated and voted on separately.”

“The failure to fully fund the promise of CFE is also extremely disheartening,” said Leonie Haimson,  Executive Director of Class Size Matters. “Despite the fact that the Assembly and Senate proposed adding $1.2 billion to the education budget as a down payment for the $4.1 billion still owed our schools, instead there will be only a $50 million increase over last year. The state will continue to shortchange NYC schools  by at least $600 million – less than what could have been raised by a tax on pied-a-terre homes.  The only good thing about the education budget is that the Contracts for Excellence program remains – with the smidgen of transparency and accountability that it requires, including NYC’s obligation to lower class size, which parents have sued DOE to carry out.” 

Shino Tanikawa, District 2 parent leader and NYC Kids PAC member concluded: “Parent leaders have asked for amendments to Mayoral control every year since 2015. Thanks largely to Senators Liu and Jackson, this year some of the changes are incorporated.  While I appreciate these small improvements, I am disappointed the legislature did not establish a commission to evaluate the school governance system.  Additionally, I am deeply concerned by the level of Foundation Aid funding.  After the Senate and Assembly one-house budgets, the rug was pulled from right under us and our children will continue to suffer in large classes for another year.  When do we start prioritizing the future of our State by providing a sound basic education to all our children?” 

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Update on state budget deadlock & College Board threat to student privacy

1.  The NY state budget is stalled and will be late for the first time in years. The deadlock appears to be related to education funding for our public schools vs. charter schools, and whether the cap on charter schools will be lifted.

As usual, the Assembly Democratic majority wants to fully fund Foundation Aid to high-needs districts, as required by the CFE court decision, while the Governor and the Senate, led by the GOP and their allies in the Independent Democratic Caucus, are more interested in supporting charter schools – by raising the cap on these privately-run schools and increasing their funding.
Please call your Senators, Assemblymembers and the Governor today. Tell them they should fully fund Foundation Aid, and NOT raise the cap on charters.

Call Gov. Cuomo at (518) 474-8390 and as soon as you get a message, hit 1 to get his voicemail.
You can find your Senator’s phone number by filling out the form here and your your Assemblymember here.

There will also be a rally on Wed. April 5 at 4:30 PM outside the Governor’s office at 633 3rd Ave in Midtown Manhattan (between 40-41 St) – please come! More information here: https://www.facebook.com/events/1666013403704013/
 
2.       Three years ago yesterday, we won a huge victory for student privacy when the NY State Legislature passed a law blocking the Education Department from disclosing personal student data with inBloom Inc., which closed its doors two weeks later.  Yet there are still huge threats to student privacy – in part, because NYSED has not enforced other provisions of the student privacy law approved at that time.

For example, the College Board is still unethically if not illegally amassing a huge amount of personal student information through the administration of the PSAT and SAT exams, and selling or “licensing” this data at 42 cents per student name.

Among the data they collect from students and disclose to third parties includes their race, religion, citizenship, GPA, their high school courses and their intended college majors, as well as their parents’ education level and income.

They offer up this information to many institutions and companies, including the Department of Defense, for marketing and recruiting purposes.

The PSAT/SAT will be given in schools this week on Wednesday April 5 in many New York districts and elsewhere in the nation.  Please warn your children that much of the personal information they will be asked to fill out is PURELY voluntary and may be sold.   Unless they and you want this to happen, they should only provide the minimal personal information necessary, including their name, address, gender and date of birth.  

For more on this issue, see last week’s article in the Washington Post Answer Sheet and my response to the College Board’s claims in that article.

Thanks,  Leonie