Citywide #ProtectOurSchools Rallies- Pics, Videos, and News Coverage

Some news links for our hugely successful rallies on Thursday:  Chalkbeat,   SchoolBook,   New York Daily News, New York Post, Non-profit Quarterly, Gothamist, Chalkbeat the night before -- to give it context.   Also see local coverage from Queens Courier,  South Slope News, Brooklyn Eagle , DNAinfo Downtown,  DNAinfo Fort Greene,    DNAinfo Inwood,  DNAinfo Park Slope and  Brooklyn Paper 

     Also:  good TV coverage from CBS News, News 12 Bronx  and News 12 Brooklyn.  And don't miss the terrific parent-made videos from PS 20, Arts and Letters school, Brooklyn Arbor and PS/IS 87 below -- featuring Public Advocate Tish James, former CM (and education hero) Robert Jackson, and lots of wonderful public school parents and kids. See also our Facebook event page; and feel free to add more newslinks or links to photos and videos below. 

PS 3 parents, kids, and teachers line up to protect their school

What a day!  I'm amazed at how quickly the idea we had for #protectourschools grew throughout the city.  When I first heard it suggested by Danielle Boudet, a parent from Oneonta NY and a steering committee member of our terrific statewide coalition NYS Allies for Education, I though it was a deceptively simple but wonderful idea: a symbolic action that all parents, students and teachers take: to link hands and protect their schools from Governor's attempt to defund, disrupt, and dismantle our public schools.

PS 3 parents and student

Unlike charter schools, of course, NYC public schools can't close for the day, and bus their kids and staff up to Albany.  It would be illegal, and we wouldn't want to cut short students' instructional time anyway.  But before and after school, I thought, it might be possible to enlist parents and teachers at perhaps 10-20 schools to take action, and if  everyone tweeted photos at about the same time, it might get some attention from the public.  Never did I imagine that 100-200 schools would participate, with such energy and joy and commitment.

Well, the idea took off.  The date of March 12 was set, and we emailed parents, suggesting they should organize this action at their schools.  The UFT subsequently emailed the idea to their chapter leaders as one among several actions they could take, but at many of the schools across the city, it  was really parents who took the lead in organizing these events.  This was truly a grassroots effort.

Councilmembers Dromm and Chin

I started at the morning at PS 3 in Greenwich Village, where my daughter had gone to school and was thrilled to parents and kids lined up, almost surrounding the entire school, chanting "Parents and teachers united can fight em".

I went back home and started madly tweeting and retweeting  the hundreds of images that were coming through the internet from all over the city-- wonderful photos and videos of parents, kids and teachers, chanting, holding signs and singing, defending their schools from Cuomo's predatory attacks.  Just check out the twitter feed with the hashtag #protectourschools, or go to our Facebook page to see many of them.

NYU Professor quoting Che Guevara

Then I got an email that CM Dromm, the chair of the Ed Committee in the City Council,  was holding a press conference in the Red Room at 1 PM, dashed down there, where he and other Councilmembers were speaking out against the Governor's damaging privatization agenda.  CMs Dromm, Ferreras, Chin, Maisel, Barron, Treygar, Menchaca, Rosenthal, and Lander were all wonderfully eloquent about how we'd had 12 years of the Bloomberg axe of closing schools, ripping out the heard of communities, and expanding charters -- and here we were faced with these failed and damaging proposals all over again,.

Me

I ran home, started tweeting again, and then joined the eloquent teachers and students from City-as-School who were gathered in Washington Sq. Park for a speak-out.   Teachers and students spoke about the importance of treating each other as human beings, rather than test scores or isolated pieces of data. One speaker, a professor from NYU whose name I didn't catch (if you know her, please add to the comments section below), quoted Che Guevara who said, "if education is not given to the people, they will have to take it."

City as School singing "The Times They are a Changin'"

 A Detroit activist spoke about how his city had been devastated by the closing of hundreds of schools -- and that we should fight the Governor's policies that would do likewise.  I spoke about how Cuomo's proposal to send 250 more charters to the city -- each of which would be obligated to get free space and buildings at taxpayer expense - could prove to be a fatal blow to our public education system and could cost the taxpayer $830 million per year in annual payments for rent alone.

The speak-out wrapped up with a student singing the Bob Dylan song, "The Times they are a'changing" and another teacher who said this should be only the first of many protests.  And indeed there is a rally in City Hall Park tomorrow, hosted by Tish James, our Public Advocate, and another one in front of the Governor's office on March 28. 

We got tons of press most of it good.  Some reporters who shall remain nameless implied that parents were just tools of the UFT; the Governor predictably called us "special interests" having a tantrum, which just shows how successful the day's events were. Right before he was run out of town on a rail, Commissioner John King also vilified parents as "special interests" who dared protest his high-stakes testing/privacy violating agenda.

My favorite videos from the day are below, including Tish James giving a wonderful civics letter to the parents and kids at PS 20 and Arts and Letters, and the PTA presidents of those schools explaining how they feel about Cuomo's proposals.

Below that is a great short video from Brooklyn Arbor, complete with musical refrain, and a video from PS/IS 87 in Washington Heights, where the famous Campaign for Fiscal Equity school funding case began,  and whose court decision the Governor is defying.  This one stars lead CFE plaintiff former CM Robert Jackson and the parent leaders at that school. 

A+L - P.S. 20 HANDS AROUND THE SCHOOL from Frantic Studio/client on Vimeo.

 

Post by Jennifer Rogers-Anderson.

Class sizes to rise to thirty in elementary schools next year?

I have heard from several sources that elementary school principals have been told by their network leaders to plan for average class size of thirty in grades K-5 next year.  (see letter below from the School Leadership Team at PS 3.)

This would represent an increase of 6.4 children per class compared to last year; or an increase of 27%, and would represent the largest class sizes in these grades in at least twenty years or more.  

When Dennis Walcott was testifying before the NYC Council, he said that even with 4100 teacher layoffs, he did not expect class sizes to increase any more than 1.5 students per class. The layoffs were averted, but because budget cuts to schools are still so large, principals are being told to that the increase may be more than four times as large.  See the letter in protest from the PS 3 SLT below.

This is despite the fact that class size reduction is the top priority of parents again in the DOE learning environment survey, for the third year in a row, and a law was passed by the state legislature in 2007, requiring that NYC reduce class size in all grades..

If you have heard anything about your school’s class sizes next year, please contact me at leonie@att.net

____

July 20, 2011

VIA EMAIL (dmwalcott@schools.nyc.gov)

Dear Chancellor Walcott,

One of the phrases that we hear all too frequently is, “Class size is not important. Teacher quality is.” This argument rings hollow.

We are graced with high quality teachers; however when they have too many students whose needs they are trying to address, their effectiveness declines. The image that comes to mind is that of the juggling troupe, The Flying Karamazov Brothers, who juggle odd assortments of objects, even soliciting some from the audience. However, no matter how skilled the juggler, if s/he attempts to manage too many objects at once, some fall. In our instance, unfortunately, what falls is children.

The Department of Education is considering a budget premised on increasing class sizes for grades 1-5 to 30 students per class.  We are writing to urge you not to adopt a budget that requires such an increase.

While we are sympathetic that budget cuts must be made and priorities must be shifted, increasing class size will fundamentally hinder learning. The simple fact is that teachers cannot provide optimal, differentiated instruction for 25 young children as well as they can for 20, let alone for 32. Even excellent teachers have limits to their energy, time, patience, and ability to solve the infinite array of problems that facilitating learning involves.  At PS 3, we have seen firsthand how increase in class size can negatively impact teachers’ energy and students’ ability to learn.

The timing of this proposed class size increase is particularly unfortunate, as our school community has been enthusiastic about incorporating instruction and assessments that address the new Common Core Standards, an initiative that New York City and State are supporting with great vigor.   Larger class sizes are likely to be highly discouraging to instructional staff.  This has nothing to do with teacher attitudes, which are positive and inclusive, but rather the difficulty of implementing so many changes at once.

 We urge you not to move forward with a budget that requires increased class size.  It would be a major step backward for closing the gap in providing quality education for all.

 Sincerely, PS 3 SLT

Denise Collins, Chairperson                         

Dana Abraham                                               Patricia Laraia

Liz Craig                                                         Kirsty Mogensen

Nick  Gottlieb                                                 Jackie Peters

Jean Hale                                                       Amie Schindel

Kimberly Jensen                                             Cassidy Sehgal

Stephanie Kim                                                Lisa Siegman

Susan Korn                                                     Susan Soler