If you are within driving distance of New York City, please come to the Skinny Awards.
I will be there, along with many other friends of public education.
The Skinny Awards are the opposite of the Broad Awards, which are given to urban districts and charter schools that raise test scores. The Skinny Awards recognize character, courage, valor, and integrity in support of sound education ideas.
Leonie Haimson is the genius behind the Skinny Awards.
Benefits go to Class Size Matters, which advocates for reduced class size, opposes invasion of student privacy, and supports teachers and public schools. Leonie runs Class Size Matters on something less than a shoestring.
Here is the announcement:
Please attend our Fifth annual “Skinny Awards” Class Size Matters fundraiser
And enjoy a four-course dinner with wine
When: Tuesday June 18 at 6 PM
Where: FAGIOLINI ON 40TH, 120 E. 40th St. (betw. Lexington and 3rd Ave.)
Purchase your tickets here.
Each year we give an award to the individuals who provide the real “Skinny” on NYC schools. Past recipients of the award include Diane Ravitch and Juan Gonzalez. This year, our “Skinny” award will go to two brilliant teacher/bloggers:
Arthur Goldstein, who writes the NYC Educator blog and is an ESL teacher
at Francis Lewis High School in Queens
Gary Rubinstein, who blogs at Teach for Us and is a math teacher
at Stuyvesant HS in lower Manhattan
This dinner is always a highlight of the year, with delicious food, good wine, and great company.
This year, it is especially important to attend and/or contribute to our work. As always, Class Size Matters relies on your donations to keep our organization going. We have continued to advocate for smaller classes and an end to school overcrowding, as class sizes swell throughout the country. We also have become leaders in the fight against high-stakes testing, privatization, and the violation of student privacy.
Nationally, we spearheaded the battle against the sharing of confidential student data with a corporation called inBloom Inc. inBloom Inc. plans to put children’s personal information on a vulnerable data cloud, and share it with private vendors without parental notification or consent.
For the last few months, the tabloids and corporate reform blogs have featured attacks against me personally, evidence of the prominent role that Class Size Matters plays in the debate over education policy. One of the best ways to show your support for our work is to contribute whatever you can to keep our organization alive.
If you believe that class size matters, and that it is important to keep our public schools and children’s personal information out of the hands of private corporations, please make tax-deductible contribution now to Class Size Matters and/or purchase a seat at our fundraiser dinner June 18 by clicking here or here: http://www.nycharities.org/events/EventLevels.aspx?ETID=6292 .
Please forward to others who care and hope to see you there, Leonie
Leonie Haimson
Executive Director
Class Size Matters
124 Waverly Pl.
New York, NY 10011
212-674-7320
leonie@classsizematters.org
http://www.classsizematters.org
http://nycpublicschoolparents.blogspot.com
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/leonie-haimson
Follow me on twitter @leoniehaimson
Make a tax-deductible contribution to Class Size Matters now!
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Diane Ravitch's blog 
I Will be there! Class Size Matters makes so much difference! By the way, contributions to Class Size Matters are tax deductible…who do you want to give your $$ to? Class Size or RTTT:)
Directly to my children’s school, to hire more teachers, if that were a third option.
Leonie, when they attack you that means you are doing something properly and you are effecting their program. You are doing the proper thing by setting the agenda not letting them set the agenda. Keep pushing for what is proper for our children. What is the legal methodology in N.Y. to by a legal process to bring back by a vote of some kind an elected board of education and to end mayoral control. The PEOPLE need to TAKE CHARGE again. When that happens there needs to be put into place tight financial controls as N.Y. City Schools have at least $23.9 billion for one year which equates to about $21,000/student which is more than enough to take care of business. Chicago has a little over $12,000/student. As I always tell people analyze your budgets. Compare the preliminary against the audited actuals for 10 years or at least 5 years to know anything. I just took a quick look at Chicago and I think I found where their money goes and that is to contractors. If you know and have experience these things just stand out when you have a background in budgets. N.Y. and D.C. have a lot of money and that means a lot is thrown away for them to be in trouble and to not have what it takes to educate their students. Total fraud and waste is what it has to be. This much money cannot disappear by accident it is by plan. I really do not believe that others do not know how to read budgets and cannot find what I do by reading them and doing comparative analysis.