NYC Public School Parents: "Talk out of School" podcast with PEP member Tom Sheppard and Regent Kathy Cashin

NYC Public School Parents: "Talk out of School" podcast with PEP member Tom Sheppard and Regent Kathy Cashin

"Talk out of School" podcast with PEP member Tom Sheppard and Regent Kathy Cashin

Check out our latest "Talk out of School" podcast with Tom Sheppard on pushing the envelope on Panel for Educational Policy to empower parents on issues such as school mergers, closures, and larger educational policies regarding testing, funding and class size; and Regent Kathy Cashin on how smaller classes transformed her schools when she was Superintendent of D23 & Regional Superintendent in Brooklyn and Queens.

 

Resources:

Panel for Educational Policy agenda for May 18 meeting and contract list; instructions on how to listen or comment here. 

Daily News article on proposed closure of PS 88 in the Bronx 

NY Times 2006 profile of Kathleen Cashin and her work as a Superintendent and Regional Superintendent in Brooklyn and Queens.

Regent Cashin’s op-ed on what happened in her schools when class size was reduced.

NYC Public School Parents: "Talk out of School" podcast with PEP member Tom Sheppard and Regent Kathy Cashin

NYC Public School Parents: "Talk out of School" podcast with Council Member Danny Dromm, chair of the Finance Committee

NYC Public School Parents: "Talk out of School" podcast with Council Member Danny Dromm, chair of the Finance Committee

"Talk out of School" podcast with Council Member Danny Dromm, chair of the Finance Committee

Former teacher and NYC Council Finance chair Danny Dromm has been a champion for student rights and quality public schools. 

He spoke to Leonie about his experiences with large class sizes in Queens, why he risked his job by coming out as gay at his school, why he decided to run for the Council and challenge an incumbent, and why he and the City Council have made reducing class size a priority for next year’s budget. 

Dromm also discussed his views on restorative justice in schools, testing, charter schools, and the rights of ultra-Orthodox children to receive a sound basic education.

 Episode Notes

Resources:

• Danny Dromm’s activism in advocating for gay rights and on the Rainbow Curriculum
• Mayor de Blasio’s budget proposal for FY 2022
• City Council’s budget response
• Regent Kathy Cashin’s Daily News op-ed on the importance of lowering class size
• NYS Senate bill S. 6296 to require NYC to update their class size reduction plan
• Class Size Matters report on DOE over-payments for charter school rent and underpayments to NYC public schools in matching funds for facility enhancement

NYC Public School Parents: "Talk out of School" podcast with Council Member Danny Dromm, chair of the Finance Committee

NYC Public School Parents: Latest Talk out of School podcast with Jasmine Gripper of AQE and MS principal Michael Perlberg

NYC Public School Parents: Latest Talk out of School podcast with Jasmine Gripper of AQE and MS principal Michael Perlberg

Latest Talk out of School podcast with Jasmine Gripper of AQE and MS principal Michael Perlberg

Check out the latest #TalkoutofSchool with AQE's Jasmine Gripper on what state budget deal is looking like for NYC & MS principal Michael Perlberg on challenges faced by his school this year & what students should be offered next year to help them recover & reconnect. 

 Resources: 

• New Class Size Matters report on overspending on charter facilities and underspending on public school matching funds
• Daily News article; and WCBS TV segment on the lack of matching funds.
• AQE: Send a letter to Gov. Cuomo and state leaders on protecting students in the state budget by taxing the ultra-wealthy
• More on Outward Bound NYC public schools, including MS 839.
• Gothamist article on different proposals that have been made for the use of the federal funds, including reducing class size.

NYC Public School Parents: Latest Talk out of School podcast with Jasmine Gripper of AQE and MS principal Michael Perlberg

Please give so we can continue our work for smaller classes & student privacy in 2021 | Class Size Matters

Please give so we can continue our work for smaller classes & student privacy in 2021 | Class Size Matters  | A clearinghouse for information on class size & the proven benefits of smaller classes

Please give so we can continue our work for smaller classes & student privacy in 2021

Dear Friends —

2020 was a difficult year for Class Size Matters as it was for many non-profits. If you support our mission of smaller classes, so that all students no matter what their background can receive the help and feedback from teachers they need for an equitable opportunity to learn, please make a tax-deductible donation now. We were unable to hold our usual annual fundraiser in the spring because of the pandemic, so we really would value your contributions at this time.

Some highlights of our efforts this year: In February, standing-room only hearings were held at City Hall on the necessity to lower class size in the public schools. We used that opportunity to urge the City Council to allocate specific funding for that end. Parents, educators, students and top officials, including Kathleen Cashin, Board of Regents member, testified that this would provide the transformational change that NYC students need and deserve, especially as class sizes are out of control in many neighborhood schools and remain 15-30% larger on average than in the rest of the state.

And then the pandemic hit in March, causing a plunge in city tax revenues and proposals by the city to slash the education budget.

Our efforts quickly pivoted to trying to prevent damaging cuts to critical programs and drawing attention to wasteful DOE spending. We were the first advocates to blow the whistle on the DOE’s plan to fully fund school bus companies to the tune of $1.1 billion per year – even as buses had been sitting idle for months in parking lots and garages across the city.  Because of the consequent uproar, the city renegotiated these contracts, leading to savings of at least $200 million.

We also brought attention to the huge class sizes that students were subjected to while engaged in online learning, as well as the risk to their privacy.   DOE has encouraged schools to use hundreds of commercially-prepared ed tech programs, with no evidence they complied with the provisions of the NY state student privacy law that we had pushed for and that had come into full force in January 2020.

If you would like us to continue to advocate for students to receive the full academic and emotional support next year that they will need more than ever before, rather than double down on online learning, as the Chancellor has proposed, and that DOE should cease spending millions on wasteful contracts and unnecessary programs, please show your support by donating here, or by sending a check to Class Size Matters, 124 Waverly Pl., New York NY 10011.

Hoping you and your families have a safe and happy New Year,

Leonie

P.S. You can check out last week’s “Talk out of School” podcast interview with parent activist Shino Tanikawa about the changed middle and high school admissions policies for next year and what they will and won’t accomplish. Please listen if you can, and let me know what you think. You can also subscribe to the podcast at that link or at Apple iTunes, Google, or Spotify.

Please give so we can continue our work for smaller classes & student privacy in 2021 | Class Size Matters  | A clearinghouse for information on class size & the proven benefits of smaller classes

NYC Public School Parents: "Talk out of School" on "integration fatigue" and what's happening in Finland's schools during the pandemic

NYC Public School Parents: "Talk out of School" on "integration fatigue" and what's happening in Finland's schools during the pandemic

"Talk out of School" on "integration fatigue" and what's happening in Finland's schools during the pandemic

Today, on my podcast "Talk out of School," I interviewed Prof. Noliwe Rooks and author William Doyle.

First, I recapped some of the latest news from NYC, including that despite last week's order from Governor Cuomo to close more than 300 public and private schools in COVID hotspots in Brooklyn and Queens, it has been reported that little enforcement has been done to close the Ultra-orthodox Yeshivas in these neighborhoods. 

Then I greeted back to the show Prof. Noliwe Rooks of Cornell University, whom I spoke to last week as well.  Prof. Rooks, the author of "Cutting School," explained how successful independent schools run by Black educators in the 1960s and 1970s had closed due to the expansion of well-connected charter chains. Prof. Rooks also described why many Black parents and other advocates were suffering from “integration fatigue,” and provided her thoughts about how should the planned reopening of city schools should have proceeded this fall, instead of what actually happened. 

William Doyle, whose book “Let the Children Play” is about to come out on paperback, then joined us. He is living in Finland this year, researching a book on that nation’s education system, and his 7th grade son is attending a public school in Helsinki. Doyle described how Finland is dealing with the pandemic and more specifically what's happening in the school his son attends. He also explained how Finland’s education system provided important lessons for the future direction of US public schools. You can find previous podcasts and//or subscribe here.&nbsp.

Links and Resources:

• Noliwe Rooks, Cutting School: The Segrenomics of American Education
• William Doyle,  Let the Children Play: For the Learning, Well-being and Life Success of Every Child, co-authored by Pasi Sahlberg
• Segment about Finnish schools in Michael Moore’s documentary, “Where to Invade Next”

NYC Public School Parents: "Talk out of School" on "integration fatigue" and what's happening in Finland's schools during the pandemic

NYC Public School Parents: Why Covid has spread in Ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods and "Cutting School" -- how Black schools have been a focus of experimentation and profit

NYC Public School Parents: Why Covid has spread in Ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods and "Cutting School" -- how Black schools have been a focus of experimentation and profit 

NYC Public School Parents: Why Covid has spread in Ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods and "Cutting School" 

how Black schools have been a focus of experimentation and profit 

Today on my WBAI podcast "Talk out of School" I updated listeners on the additional school closures planned this week in NYC, first by Mayor de Blasio in nine zip codes in Brooklyn and Queens, and now in larger numbers in red and orange zones of high Covid positivity, determined by Governor Cuomo and his Covid task force.  

Naftuli Moster of Yaffed, who first appeared on the podcast in May, explained why many of the hot spots experiencing high rates of COVID positivity  in NYC are located primarily in areas with high concentrations of Ultra-Orthodox Jews. He said this was for two reasons: one, there is no science instruction at the Yeshivas, the schools that Ultra-Orthodox boys attend, and thus they don’t understand how viral transmission occurs. Two, the members of these insular communities have long flouted the law in areas of education and public health without any consequences, and in fact have received special favors and additional funding because of their political influence. Many have gotten used to violating rules set down by the city or state, in this case regarding the need to avoid mass gatherings, wear masks, and maintain social distancing. 

Naftuli suggested the best way the Governor and Mayor should address the refusal of many members of these communities to comply with the new restrictions would be by threatening their leaders with a loss of public funding, including discretionary child-care vouchers, funds which they have received at disproportionate levels in the past. 

Then I interviewed Noliwe Rooks, W.E.B. Du Bois Professor of Literature at Cornell, about her new book, Cutting School: Privatization, Segregation, and the End of Public Education, which analyzes the history of education inequity in the U.S. and the way in which the schooling of Black students has been repeatedly used as an opportunity for experimentation and profit by education reformers and entrepreneurs. 

Instead of providing these students with the same opportunities wealthy white students receive, such as small classes, experienced teachers, and plenty of extracurricular activities, including art and music, as well as intensive support when they are struggling,  Prof. Rooks explained how their schools continue to be defunded and privatized, through the expansion of charters, vouchers and online learning.  You can subscribe and download other episodes of "Talk out of School" here.

Episode Notes

Resources:

• Young Advocates for Fair Education [Yaffed]
• Cutting School: Privatization, Segregation, and the End of Public Education by Noliwe Rooks

NYC Public School Parents: Why Covid has spread in Ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods and "Cutting School" -- how Black schools have been a focus of experimentation and profit 

NYC Public School Parents: Latest "Talk out of school" podcast with cybersecurity expert Doug Levin and NYS Senate Brad Hoylman

NYC Public School Parents: Latest "Talk out of school" podcast with cybersecurity expert Doug Levin and NYS Senate Brad Hoylman

Latest "Talk out of school" podcast with cybersecurity expert Doug Levin and NYS Senate Brad Hoylman

Check out the latest "Talk out of School" podcast, starting with my update on NYC education news, including Sunday's vote of no confidence in the Mayor by the CSA, the school administrator’s union, the restart of in-person learning for elementary school students on Tuesday, and the fact that the city's COVID positivity rate had risen above 3% on Tuesday, which if it continues for seven days would  cause another system wide school shutdown.   (Luckily, on Thursday, the city's positivity rate fell to 1.59%, and the seven day average remains low at 1.52%.)

After this brief news recap, I spoke with Doug Levin, President of the K-12 Cybersecurity Resource Center, about the increased number of data breaches, ransomware, and other cyberattacks on school systems in NY and throughout the country as more instruction has moved online, posing a serious threat to the operation of districts and the privacy of students and staff.  

Finally, I interviewed NY State Senator Brad Hoylman about his views on a range of education issues, including unaddressed dyslexia including in the case of his daughter,  his various bills to raise taxes on the wealthy to allow for more school funding and prevent additional budget cuts, his legislative proposal to improve charter school accountability, and rising discontent with Mayoral control.  You can subscribe to the weekly podcast here.

Links and Resources

• K-12 Cybersecurity Resource Center and a district self-assessment tool
• NY State Senator Brad Hoylman website
• Revenue bills introduced in the Legislature sponsored by Sen. Hoylman: a pied-a-terre tax on non-primary residences valued at $5m or more, a repeal of tax breaks for yachts and private jets, authorizing New York City to be able to impose a tax on vacant commercial storefronts, and close the carried interest loophole. Sen. Hoylman is also a co-sponsor of a bill by Senator Robert Jackson to enact an ultra-millionaires tax and direct the proceeds to school funding through Foundation Aid.  
• His bill to strengthen charter school accountability is here.

NYC Public School Parents: Latest "Talk out of school" podcast with cybersecurity expert Doug Levin and NYS Senate Brad Hoylman