Spending Sunday with Tim Walz on his birthday & the wonderful Network for Public Education conference

The annual conference of Network for Public Education, on whose board I sit, was held last weekend in Columbus, Ohio.  It was terrific as usual, with wonderful speeches and incisive and illuminating workshops and panel discussions on how to strengthen our public schools and protect them from the depredations of budget cuts, privatization, and censorship.

But the highlight for me and many others was Tim Walz' inspiring keynote address on Sunday afternoon, where he spoke about how we have to fight Trump's attempt to dismantle and defund our public schools. An article about his speech is here, though the article underestimates the numbers in the audience and the response: there were actually about 350 people there, including state legislators, Commissioners of Education, educators, parents, and advocates, who were ecstatic to hear him speak.

Walz was introduced by Randi Weingarten, who was introduced by Diane Ravitch.  Diane approvingly noted how earlier, Randi had been called "the most dangerous person in the world" by Mike Pompeo.

Randi said that we cannot give into the "autocrats who want to bully people into silence," and asked what does it mean when the President "wants to destroy the only federal agency devoted to education."

She noted it was Tim Walz' birthday, and after he stepped up to the dais, she presented him with a cake and we all sang him Happy Birthday.

Both Tim Walz and Randi hailed the protest rallies and marches the had occurred nationwide the day before, demanding that Trump and Musk take their "Hands Off" our democracy and our schools.  Tim Walz assured us that we aren't overreacting, since "The road to authoritarianism is littered to people saying you’re overreacting." 

He added: "People say that they’re not into politics but I say that  politics are into you. When I’m asked who’s leading the Democratic Party I say they’re in the streets like yesterday."  

Walz pointed out that the takeover of our public schools is being engineered by the oligarchs -- though "we shouldn't call them oligarchs but greedy bastards."  He also said that the middle class was built in the US by our public education system and the unions.

Of course, I did get a selfie with Walz -- and when I introduced myself, I said I was from Class Size Matters.  As a long time teacher, he immediately responded, "yes it does!"  I added that he was the best thing to come out of the 2024 election, and he replied, "You're too kind."  As opposed to so many politicians, he truly comes off as the warmest, most humble human being -- and funny besides.

Earlier that day,  I had been a presenter at a workshop on the risks of AI in the classroom, along with Cassie Creswell from Illinois Families for Public Schools, and co-chair along with me of the Parent Coalition for Student Privacy.  Concluding the workshop with eclat was the retired teacher, brilliant blogger and education guru Peter Greene.  Our presentation is below.

My comments at the School Construction Board meeting and how you can help

 

March 22, 2025

On Thursday morning, I spoke at the School Construction Authority board meeting, down in the bowels of Tweed, explaining how they have failed to fulfill their legal and ethical obligations to provide schools with the space necessary to comply with the class size law, and the requirements of the Public Authorities Law.

Seven people sat around a table, only two of them SCA board members, going over multi-million dollar contracts and appointments.  

After I spoke, Deputy Chancellor Dan Weisberg responded dismissively to my comments, while the other board member, Peter McCree, said nothing. Though the law requires three members at all times there have only been two since August 2023, when Larraine Grillo resigned, as the NY Post reported back in September. [More on this here.] Nor did the President of the SCA, Nina Kubota say anything in response.   My comments in full are below. I sent them a copy of my comments afterwards but have so far received no reply.

On Wednesday night, the Panel for Educational Policy is scheduled to vote on the five-year capital plan, which funds less than half the 70,000 seats which the SCA says are necessary for schools to be able to comply with class size law. Moreover, fewer than half of those seats funded are even specified as to district, subdistrict or grade level, which violates at least two laws requiring SCA transparency. Finally, the SCA board itself has failed to adhere to basic governance requirements, established in the NY Public Authorities Law.

I urge you to send this message to the Panel members before the vote – deadline Tuesday night March 25, 2025. First, you can check if your child attends one of the 500 schools that do not have space for smaller classes, according to the DOE’s own estimates. Then send them the email; and put the name of your school into the subject line and edit it any way you like. Instructions and a template are posted here. Please copy me at info@classsizematters.org

More on what the DOE and SCA should be doing but are not to make space for smaller classes was detailed in our NYC Council budget testimony on March 13.

thanks Leonie

Comments at the School Construction Authority Board meeting 3/20/25

Hi, my name is Leonie Haimson and I am the executive director of Class Size Matters.

While Cora Liu of the SCA testified  at the preliminary budget hearing last week that 70,000 more school seats would be needed to comply with the class size law, passed by the State Legislature in June of 2022, there are only about 33,000 seats funded in the five-year capital plan, and fewer than 20,000 are expected to be completed by September 2028,  the deadline in law. 

According to the DOE, there are nearly 500 schools without the space currently lower class sizes to the mandated levels that enroll nearly half of all students, but no apparent plan on how they will be provided with the space to comply.

·       Moreover, nearly half of all the new seats that are funded in the five-year plan are still unspecified as to district, subdistrict or grade level.  Under no previous administration has the SCA capital plan refused to specify where schools by district and grade level. Not only is this lack of transparency unfortunate, given the need to accelerate school construction to meet the timeline in the class size law, but it also appears to violate two laws.

·       First, the state class size law itself requires DOE to submit an “annual capital plan for school construction and leasing to show how many classrooms will be added in each year and in which schools and districts to achieve the class size targets.”

·       Second, the lack of transparency also violates Local Law 167, passed by the Council in 2018, requiring the SCA to explain where seats are needed by district, subdistrict and grade level, as well as the demographic data and methodology used to make these projections.  Yet Instead of becoming more transparent after this law was passed, the capital plan became even more opaque.

·       We also have ongoing concerns with the School Construction Authority’s lax governance. As reported in the NY Post in September, the SCA Board has been comprised of only two members since August 2023, though three members are required at all times by the state law that established the SCA in 1998: “The authority shall be governed by and its powers shall be exercised by a board of trustees consisting of three members….Each appointed member shall continue in office until a successor has been appointed and qualifies.”  

·       According to the latest report of the NY State Authorities Budget Office, the SCA Board also lacks a Governance Committee, a Finance Committee, as well as official policies for salary and compensation, time and attendance. Nor does it have a Whistleblower Protection policy. According to this NYS Authorities Budget Office, all of these are required by the NYS Public Authorities Law.

We urge you to reform the Board’s structure  and policies according to the requirements in the law, and to revamp the capital plan, so that it clearly shows where and when school seats will be created to allow the city to meet the Sept. 2028 deadline in the class size  law.

Thank you for listening;  I will email you a copy of these comments and hope for a point by point response.

How to defend our public schools -- and our students -- from Trump's attack

With their permission, adapted from the excellent summary from IL Families for Public School posted here.

Is your Congressperson pushing back on vouchers?

February 21, 2025

The attacks on public education—and public goods of all kinds—by the Presidential administration continue and continue to escalate. We’ll cover a few of these below,but also include ways you can pitch in to the fight.

Congressional Reps demand President withdraw EO on school privatization

Forty-five US representatives sent a letter to President Trump in response to last month’s executive order (EO) on school privatization, which ordered various federal departments to devise ways for states to divert federal dollars meant for public schools to private school coffers.

The push to support school vouchers in this EO is independent of the proposed creation of a federal voucher program by Congress, something that could be snuck into a budget bill later this year.

The letter from members of Congress calls on Trump to withdraw his order, saying: “The federal government should be investing in robust funding to support and strengthen our public schools rather than redirecting resources to unaccountable, privately run secular and religious schools.” You can read the full letter here.

Here’s a press release, listing the signers.  Among the members from New York: Yvette Clarke (NY-09), Jerry Nadler (NY-12), and Nydia Velázquez (NY-07). Is your rep on this list of signers? If so, call and thank them for defending public schools and urge them to oppose the passage of a federal voucher program, known as the Educational Choice for Children Act. Find your US Rep here.

If your rep is not on that list of nine, find out where they stand on the policies pushed by the EO and the proposed Educational Choice for Children Act. Urge them to oppose any diversion of federal tax dollars to private schools.  

Calls are best, but you can also send an email via this link. (We recommend the 5 Calls app as a quick way to find your US Rep and Senators’ phone numbers at multiple office locations; you can use your own issue/script when you call.)

These calls continue to be important whether you have Republicans or Democrats representing you. We know that vouchers aren’t popular with voters in either party based on polling and ballot referenda. And recent fights at the state level show this too:

NBC News: Trump is pushing 'school choice,' but some Republicans aren't on board

Make sure you identify yourself as a constituent and are specific about the issue you are calling about: Public dollars must be for public schools, not vouchers to bankroll tuition at private schools. Here’s some more good tips for communicating with your reps.

Learn more about the Trump administration's plans and how to counter them

If you’re feeling bewildered by the day-to-day and hour-by-hour developments on the federal level and want some bigger picture context, there’s a virtual event this Wednesday, February 26th that we recommend:

DePaul College of Education’s 2025 Winter Forum "THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION'S PLANS FOR PUBLIC EDUCATION"   Wednesday, February 26 at 5:30-7pm (CST) Register here

Two education policy experts will discuss the new administration’s policy agenda for public schools and the future of public education in this country—Dr, Carol Burris, executive director of Network for Public Education, and Dr Julian Vasquez Heilig, professor of education leadership at Western Michigan University. They will also explore advocacy efforts to protect public education—what you can do!

US Department of Ed weaponizes the Office of Civil Rights

Along with the EO on education privatization, last month the President also issued an EO threatening funding of schools that are striving to welcome and educate all kids, no matter their racial, cultural or gender identity. This EO is an attack on our children’s freedom to learn.

Last Friday the US Department of Education’s acting assistant secretary for civil rights Craig Trainor sent a follow-up "Dear Colleague" letter to all educational institutions receiving federal funds. The letter makes sweeping—and legally-dubious—threats to investigate schools and withhold federal funding for implementing nearly any race-conscious policies or programs.

Inside Higher Ed Trump admin threatens to rescind federal funds over DEI

Trainor’s letter goes far beyond the 2023 Supreme Court ruling that essentially ended affirmative action in college admissions. Unfortunately, even without legal weight or enforcement, this letter can have a chilling effect on K-12 public schools that have made deliberate choices in recent years to address the long shadow that structural racism and other forms of discrimination have cast on our public school system.

You can read critiques of the legal claims in Trainor’s letter below. The first one listed is authored by 17 law professors and deans, experts in the areas of “antidiscrimination law, education law, employment law, constitutional law, and civil rights.”

Memorandum: DEI Programs Are Lawful Under Federal Civil Rights Laws and Supreme Court Precedent

Julian Vasquez Heilig - Cloaking Inequity blog U.S. Department of Education’s 14-Day Ultimatum on Equal Opportunity: Will Universities Surrender or Resist?

Chronicle of Higher Education In Sweeping Letter, Ed. Dept. Says SCOTUS Ruling Applies to All Race-Conscious Programs

US Senator Patty Murray (D-OR): Senator Murray Slams Trump & Elon Threatening to Rip Away Federal Funding for Public Schools & Colleges Over Political Crusade: “Do Not Be Intimidated”

Here is a  statement from the NY State Education Department on the recent Trump Executive Orders:

The President cannot decide which laws to enforce or funds to distribute.  It’s also why two federal courts immediately enjoined the President’s attempt to “freeze” federal funds.

The Board and the Department remain committed to the inherent dignity and worth of every child.  As such, we denounce the intolerant rhetoric of these orders.  Our children cannot thrive in an environment of chaos; they need steady and stable leadership that we will endeavor to provide.

What should public school parents and advocates be doing in response to this letter? Make sure your local school leaders hear from you: Public schools must be welcoming places where all kids in our community have the freedom to learn and thrive.

Julian Vasquez Heiling, one of the speakers at the Depaul College Of Education Forum next Wednesday has compiled a good list of questions and answers on how to resist and maintain educational institutions as “a space of intellectual freedom, critical inquiry, and equity for all students, staff, and faculty.”

The grassroots group Honest in Ohio Education also has a great to-do list for standing up for schools and policies that serve all our kids.

Here’s some of the other developing threats to our schools and students from the federal executive branch, along with actions you can take to oppose them:

• Oppose unqualified US Secretary Of Education: Linda McMahon's nomination was approved by the Senate HELP Committee on Thursday by the narrowest margin 12-11, and will now require a full Senate vote. McMahon admitted that the federal government doesn’t control public school curriculum in her testimony to HELP, but wouldn’t say whether teaching Black history could risk a school’s federal funding by violating a presidential executive order on “indoctrination” in schools. Write and call your US Senators and urge them to oppose McMahon’s appointment.
• Protect civil rights of students with disabilities: A group of 17 state attorneys general are suing the federal government and attempting to overturn Section 504, a crucial federal law protecting people with disabilities from discrimination, including students in public schools. Illinois’s AG is not part of this lawsuit. The Network for Public Education has an action alert where you can send a letter to Gov. Pritzker asking that Illinois file in support of Section 504.
• Protest ending important education research: Elon Musk’s DOGE has claimed responsibility for the Department of Education (USED) terminating hundreds of millions of contracts for research under the Institute of Education Studies, including collection of data that informs the National Assessment of Educational Progress and work undertaken at Regional Education Laboratories (REL). Here’s a list of reports in recent years from the REL Midwest to give you an idea of the type of research on schools here in Illinois that is being obliterated by DOGE and USED. The Council on Exceptional Children has an action you can take to oppose gutting USED's research arm.

Save the Date: March 4th Day of Action to Protect Our Kids

Several national organizations, including the American Federation of Teachers, Moms Rising and the Alliance to Reclaim Our Schools, are planning a day of pro-public school actions on March 4th to protest the presidential push to defund public schools and dismantle the US Department of Education. We’ll keep you informed about events planned for Illinois, but you can also organize your own local activity and register it to connect with others in your school community.

Thanks for continuing to stay informed and take action in these very trying times!