Still No Approval from State on NYC's Contract for Excellence and Class Size Reduction Plan

There is still no word from the State Education Department on DOE's Contract for Excellence, the plan that needs to be approved in order for our schools to receive additional state funding. Parent Karen Koenig sends this message to the State Education Commissioner, Richard Mills, and his bosses on the Board of Regents. Parents can email the commissioner at Richard.Mills@mail.nysed.gov


Dear Board of Regents and Commissioner Mills:

I am a NYC public school parent. As you may be aware, the need for smaller classes in our schools was the top priority of parents in the recent DOE parent survey. Yet DOE’s proposal under its “Contract for Excellence” is inadequate, especially with respect to class size, and will not lead to the smaller classes necessary to provide my child and other NYC children with their right to a quality education.

Please refrain from releasing any state funds to NYC until and unless the DOE submits a real five year class size reduction plan, showing how class sizes will be significantly reduced in all grades starting this year, aligned with a capital plan that will provide sufficient space in the long term.

I am tired of high school classes with an average of 30 students (and sometimes way more than that). I am tired of my daughter attending a high school that was built for 2,000 and now has 3,500 kids in it. I am tired of my child not receiving adequate instruction in math and science because there are so many in the class that not all questions can be fully explained and responded to. I am tired of my child starting classes at 7:30 in the morning because of overcrowding. I am tired of not being able to meet with all teachers during parent/teacher conferences because there are so many other parents trying to do the same. I am tired of the DOE NOT listening to or respecting what parents have to say about school over-population and the need for smaller class size.

Regards,

Karen Koenig
Recording Secretary
John Bowne HS
Flushing, Queens

Sign a letter now and let the State know how you feel!

The city released their class size reduction proposal last week. Despite calling it a five year plan, as the state requires, it is anything but.

Accordingly, the Mayor and the Department of Education ignored the pleas of parents from all parts of the city -- including the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Staten Island, and Queens -- who begged them them to revise this flimsy proposal and instead submit a real plan that will lead to measurable progress in class size. Instead, a small group of schools will receive "targeted" class size coaching -- without an actual commitment that any school will actually reduce class size to appropriate levels.

This week the Mayor traveled to St. Louis, and in a speech to the Urban League said that elected officials who respond to parents' legitimate concerns to have their children provided with the same sort of class sizes and attention that Bloomberg's own daughters received are merely offering "cheap platitudes and slogans instead of real solutions."

Please sign on this letter to Commissioner Mills of the NY State Education Dept., urging him to reject the city's proposal, and make the DOE offer a real solution to our class size crisis. Just send your name, school and/or other organizational affiliation to leonie@att.net with a copy to Ann Kjellberg at kjellzer@pipeline.com by Aug. 6 -- the day before the state deadline for comment.

Then please resend the message -- with any edits or details about your child's situation that you'd like -- directly to SED at emscsom@mail.nysed.gov, signed with your name and full address, with a copy to your state legislators, as it's important for them to weigh in as well. For their emails, just plug your address and zip here.

Then forward this message to every parent you know who cares about the future of education in this city.