From Our Friends at Class Size Matters:

Welcome back from the Memorial Day weekend; I hope you had a nice break.  In the next few weeks, it will be decided whether NYC will lose 6,000 teaching positions next year, which would cause your child to suffer from huge increases in class size.  This is when the negotiations over the budget get serious. Here are five easy steps to take to fight back against these unconscionable cuts:



1.       Tomorrow, Wed. June 1  at 9 AM at City Hall, Council Member Robert Jackson will be holding a press conference to protest these cuts; please join us, along with the other elected officials, parents and advocates.



2.       Later in the day, at 5 PM, a safety net will be strung across Broadway, near City Hall, and then cut,  to symbolize how the mayor’s budget would eliminate the safety net for millions of New Yorkers.  Please come if you can and show your support.



3.       Our NEW petition opposing these cuts is up and running.  Please sign it, even if you signed an earlier one – it automatically sends a message in your name to Bloomberg, Speaker Quinn and Finance Chair Recchia, saying that we cannot afford to lose a single teacher next year.  This is especially important, as in many districts, our school population is growing fast.  Add your own personal story if you can.



4.       This year, our “Skinny” awards are being given to four teacher-warriors, Jackie Bennett, Julie Cavanagh, James Eterno and Christine Rowland, all fighting to save NYC schools; this is a very hard time for teachers, being constantly attacked by this administration as well as nationally by the corporate reformers who have hijacked education policy.  Check out our Facebook page, and leave a comment in appreciation of one of these teachers, or any other teacher of your choice.



5.       Please come to the Class Size Matters dinner on June 15, co-hosted by Diane Ravitch, Patrick Sullivan, and others,  where we will give out the “Skinny” awards; click here for more information and to buy a ticket.  Or simply consider contributing  a tax-deductible donation  to Class Size Matters; we need all your support to do battle against the damaging tide of budget cuts and the other dangerous policies eroding our children’s schools.



Finally, many petitions have been launched in opposition to the mayor’s budget cuts, but not all of them talk about saving the 6,000 teaching positions that would be lost if his budget is adopted.  Some only talk about preventing 4100 teacher layoffs – while still allowing 2,000 positions to be eliminated through attrition.  But if we lose 2,000 teaching positions, that means hundreds of thousands of children will still be subjected to larger class sizes next year.  That’s why we have to fight to preserve every one of these 6,000 positions.  Make sure that the petition you sign addresses this critical need.



Leonie Haimson

Executive Director

Class Size Matters

Fight Back Friday! Stand Up For Public Educatio

NO CUTS!  NO LAYOFFS!

Friday, May 20^th

 Join Public Schools Across the City

Let your voice be heard: sign a post card, call your city council member

get involved at: www.fightbackfridays.blogspot.com/

or e-mail sam@nycore.org for a toolkit

WANTED:

 $350 Million

To save 6,000 teaching positions, 4,700 through lay-offs

Billions FOUND…

Bloomberg’s Budget Spends:

·      More than $700 million in 2011-2012 on charter schools

·      $542 million in new technology

·      Hundreds of millions on testing

Cost of layoffs for our students:

·      Dramatic class size increase

·      Less safe schools

·      Less help for struggling students

·     Less time for teacher/parent communication

Did you know?  A small surcharge for city earners making $175,000 or more would yield $450 million in revenue.

(Independent Budget Office, City of New York).

Tell Bloomberg and the DOE to stop wasting our money

and start prioritizing education!

Make the wealthy and the banks pay their fair share!

Sponsored by the Fight Back Friday Committee

(CAPE, ICE, GEM, NYCoRE, PPM, TJC, TU)

Lots of Protesting Budget Cuts this Month! Here is the first one (please also keep in mind the big rally on 5/12 at Wall Street and Fight Back Friday 5/20!)

STOP SCHOOL BUDGET CUTS!


Because of Mayor Bloomberg’s cuts, our schools have

already suffered:

• Higher class sizes

• Fewer after school programs

• Cuts in basic educational supplies and services

Now the state legislature has made further cuts, and Mayor

Bloomberg is calling for layoffs.

Both the Mayor and State Senator Marty Golden oppose

renewal of a Millionaire’s Tax which could add $700 million

dollars this year and $4 billion dollars the following year,

eliminating the need for any more cuts or layoffs!

Get involved in our campaign against budget

cuts.

See how on the reverse side!

Join us for a rally outside

State Senator Marty Golden’s office

Friday, May 6th @ 4 PM

7408 5th Avenue (bet. 74th and 75th

Street)

Budget Cuts Hurt Our Schools

Take Action Now

• www.facebook.com/Budgetcutshurtourschools

Join our Facebook page for updates about future rallies.

• www.votesmart.org Type in your address in the top

white search box, Contact your local politicians and

let them know cutting our children’s education is

cutting their future and that is unacceptable!

• Call 311 and leave a message for Mayor Bloomberg

explaining how budget cuts hurt our children

• For more ways to get involved email us at

psuftogether22@gmail.com

The Blackboard Awards Celebrate Teachers

For those of you who wish to nominate your favorite teacher, please read this letter from Peter Hintz and click this link to directly nominate:  http://www.blackboardawards.com/

In a time where attacks on teachers seem endless, it would be nice to support our dedicated educators!

Dear Concerned Advocates for Public Education,

     My name is Peter Hintz and I'm writing on behalf of Manhattan Media and Eric Messinger, the editor of New York Family. We're currently promoting the Blackboard Awards (www.blackboardawards.com), which honors local teachers from all educational communities—public, private, charter, and parochial—and all grade levels, from nursery school through high school. The awards recognize outstanding, dedicated teachers from throughout the five boroughs, and enable them to share the honor with their school community. The deadline for nominations is March 31, after which the selected teachers will be honored in a special gala ceremony on June 6 at Fordham University Law School, attended by leading educators, politicians, and other local dignitaries. The schools’ reputations benefit from every faculty member who is a Blackboard Award recipient, which is something we publicize and welcome the schools to do as well.

     This process starts with parents—our most reliable resource in nominating teachers, and an area in which we feel your blog could really help our cause. Your select readership of educators and parents who are actively involved in their school community is perfectly suited for the Blackboard Awards, and we could really use help spreading the word. While we have contacted nearly every school in the area, we would like to be able to reach parents who are not necessarily involved in the PTA, SLT, or other official organizations, but would still like to recognize the wonderful teachers who make such a big difference in the lives of their children.

     If you could find a way to place a link to the Blackboard Awards website into one of your blog posts, tweets, Facebook pages, or mention the awards in any capacity, it would have a huge impact on the number of nominations because so many parents follow your blog. It would help a great number of local teachers get the recognition they deserve, and help a great number of parents to show their gratitude. Any support that you can offer would be hugely appreciated, and would certainly help us reach a record number of nominations this year. Please don't hesitate to contact me or Eric (emessinger@manhattanmedia.com) about any questions you may have, and thank you so much for your time.

All the best,

Peter Hintz

Left Forum: Friday, March 18th - Sunday, March 20th

Consider Registering for the Left Forum and Check Out Two Panels Featuring Friends of CAPE!

3/19:  Showing GEM's film, "The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for Superman", which features parents and an educator from CAPE
Session 1:  10:00-11:50
Panelists:  Brian Jones, Leonie Haimson, Monda Davids, Sam Anderson, and Julie Cavanagh

3/19:  Building Resistance in NYC to the Neoliberal Restructuring of Public Education
Session 4:  5:00-6:50
Panelists:  Jitu Weusi, John Tarleton, Leonie Haimson, Sally Lee, and Julie Cavanagh

Full Left Forum Schedule Here:  http://www.leftforum.org/2011/full-schedule
There are many great panels concerning the fight for public education!

Take Action!

There are so many attacks facing public schools and educators right now, it is hard to know how you can help and take action. 

Here are a few simple things you can do:

1. Sign the petitions to the right to support teachers and seniority rights and to say no to state budget cuts.
Also, if you have been teaching five years or less, sign this form letter http://bit.ly/eCXaC8 to support seniority rights.

2. Visit ourschoolsnyc.gov to keep updated and sign their latest petition calling for an investigation into the DOE's intentional undermining of NYC public schools:  http://www.change.org/petitions/request-for-investigations-of-nycdoe-for-violating-students-civil-rights-educational-neglect.

3. Keep up to date with the latest events, including an upcoming Fight Back Friday in March, on the right hand side of this blog and at http://www.grassrootseducationmovement.blogspot.com/.  Join GEM at their next General Meeting in March, Date TBA.

4. Sign-up for a house party showing of GEM's film "The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for Superman"... all of those who sign-up to host a house party are entered in a raffle to recieve a phone call and have a conversation with Diane Ravitch.  Email:  gemnyc@gmail.com for more information.

5.  Join Parents Across America's mailing list.  PAA is an exciting new group uniting parents across the country in support of public education and public school teachers.  Visit:  http://parentsacrossamerica.org/

Rally On! Blizzard Nor Snow Day Will Stop Parents, Students, Educators, and Community Members From Expressing Their Outrage Over School Closings and Charter Takeovers.

When and Where:  Today, Thursday, January 27th 4:30 P.M.-6:30 P.M. at Brooklyn Bridge Park, on Centre Street, to the east of the Tweed Courthouse building.

What:  On Thursday, January 27th, parents, students, and teachers across the city will join together at a city-wide rally to protest Mayor Bloomberg’s destructive education policies.  The event will feature an abridged performance of "Declassified: The Struggle for Existence [We Used to Eat Lunch Together]", a reinterpretation of Antigone and a candid and scathing critique of school reforms written by students from Jamaica High School and Queens Collegiate.  Parents, students, and educators from schools facing closing and charter takeovers, as well as those who sponsored the event will speak.

Snow Closings, Yes!  School Closings, No!

Who:  Sponsored by: The Ad Hoc Committee to Stop School Closings and Charter Takeovers, Grassroots Education Movement NYC (GEM), New York Collective of Radical Educators (NYCoRE),Coalition for Public Education/Coalición por la Educación Pública (CPE-CEP), The Manhattan Local of the Green Party of NY State, Class Size Matters, United Federation of Teachers (UFT)
Endorsing Organizations: Teachers for a Just Contract (TJC), Concerned Advocates for Public Education (CAPE), Independent Community of Educators (ICE), Center For Immigrant Families (CIF), The Puerto Rico Solidarity Network - PRSN NY, People Power Movement,  Renaissance School of the Arts-M377(UFT Chapter), City-Wide Coalition for Education Excellence Now, Black Women Against Urban Youth Violence, Teachers Unite (TU),  South Bronx Community Council, NY with UPR (NY with University of Puerto Rico), Dee Knight, The Independent Workers Movement/Movimiento Independiente de Trabajadores,, District Leader Chris Owens (52nd Assembly District, Brooklyn), Retiree Advocate Caucus-UFT, CUNY Mobilization Network, The Green Party of NY State, Independent Commission on Public Education (ICOPE), Radical Women, Answer Coalition, Community Education Council 1 (CEC1), Black New Yorkers for Educational Excellence (BNYEE), New Action/UFT, National Black Education Agenda (NBEA), State Assemblywoman Annette Robinson 56th AD, Youth on the Move (a Program of Mothers on the Move), PACE Network. Roots Revisited, S.E.E.D.S., Inc., The Healing Drum Collective, Batay Ouvriye (Workers' Struggle) Solidarity Network, Assemblywoman Inez Barron, Councilman Charles Barron and Operation P.O.W.E.R., Time Out from Testing, The M.A.NY

Additional Contacts:
Stephane Barile, NYCORE and assisting students who are performing play: 650-218-3352
Brian Pickett, teacher at Queensborough Community College  who worked with students performers: bpickett@brooklyn.cuny.edu, 718-614-4891
Crystal King, parent and PA President of PS 114: 347-789-5468
James Eterno, teacher, Jamaica High School: 917-693-5013
Stefanie Siegel, teacher, Paul Robeson High School: 347-721-2152
Muba YaroFulani, parent, CPE: 347-785-3418/347-442-5134
Brenda Walker, parent, CPE:  347-583- 5925
Leonie Haimson, parent and Executive Director, Class Size Matters:  917-435-9329
Edwin Mayorga, doctoral student in urban education at CUNY and NYCORE member:  917.400.6255
Christine Annechino, parent, CEC3:  917 593 4797