Leonie: Three Ways to Throw Obstacles in the Way of Mayoral Control

Dear parents:

Yesterday, I was up in Albany, talking to legislators on school governance. There is a lot of confusion up there, especially as the Republicans seem to have engineered a coup to take over the State Senate.

But one thing is clear: While the Mayor and his legion of paid staff and supporters are pressing them hard to retain complete his dictatorial control, the legislators are not hearing enough from their constituents – us – about what we want for the future.

We need to make our voices heard! If the system is renewed with only minor changes, our kids will likely suffer even more in the future from more overcrowding, higher class sizes, our schools converted to test prep factories, and the priorities and views of parents completely ignored.

Here are three ways you can help out!

1- Please distribute the attached flyer at your school, or email it to other parents. It is also posted at: http://www.classsizematters.org/Stop_MC_flyer_doubled_sided.doc

There are many school-wide events this time of year at which you can hand out fliers.

On the second page, there is a section that you can fill out with your legislators’ names and fax and phone nos. before you distribute it. Parents then can use this as a script for calling or faxing, while filling out their own name and addresses. You can find the names of your legislators by plugging in your zip code here: http://www.nysenate.gov/senators and http://assembly.state.ny.us/mem/

If you can volunteer to hand out flyers at your school, please email Henry Sidel at hsidel@jotosake.com ; copy me at leonie@att.net

2- We are also going to be setting up phone banking for evenings next week in one or two central locations. Let us know if you’re willing to volunteer. If you have an hour or two, you can also do this from your home – we will send you the script and a list of names and phone nos. of activist parents who have expressed their concern on this and related issues.

3- If you have a day in the next two weeks, Mon-Wed., please consider coming to Albany with us. We will have parents from the Parent Commission going up on each of these days, and you can accompany us in our rounds and also stop off at your legislators’ offices. They really need to hear from you!

I know it’s a very busy time of year. But please, we need you to help us help you now!

Thanks, and please forward this message to others who care.

Leonie Haimson
Executive Director
Class Size Matters
124 Waverly Pl.
New York, NY 10011
212-674-7320
classsizematters@gmail.com
www.classsizematters.org
http://nycpublicschoolparents.blogspot.com/