Leonie Haimson, executive director of Class Size Matters, sent out the following bulletin:
It was just revealed that Congress is due to vote on an education budget early this week which would cut Title IIA funds by $300 million. President Trump’s budget would eliminate these funds altogether for the following year.
Please write Congress today: Urge them NOT to cut Title IIA funds – which many districts use to keep teachers on staff to prevent further class size increases. In NYC, $101 million of these funds are used to keep approximately 1000 teachers on staff.
As I explained in a recent piece in Alternet, districts throughout the country have already lost thousands of teaching positions since the Great Recession which were never replaced — increasing class sizes in many schools to sky-high levels.
For more on the myriad, proven benefits of smaller classes, check out our research summary here. But please write to Congress today by clicking here.
Thanks!
Leonie Haimson
Executive Director
Class Size Matters
124 Waverly Pl.
New York, NY 10011
Diane Ravitch's blog 
And forward to your education friends.
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Reblogged this on Thoughts, Songs, Words with Meaning and commented:
This is too important to ignore.
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Crossposted at https://dianeravitch.net/2017/05/01/write-a-letter-to-your-representative-in-congress-to-protect-federal-education-funding/#respond
wit this comment:
Leonie Haimson helped start Parents Across America, and currently sits on the board of the Network for Public Education. She co-founded and co-chairs the Parent Coalition for Student Privacy.
She is also the founder and director of Class Size Matters, which is a non-profit organization that advocates for smaller classes in NYC’s public schools and the nation as a whole. This organization is dedicated to providing information on the significant and wide-ranging benefits of smaller classes, particularly for at-risk children, to boost student learning, engagement, and graduation rates, and lower disciplinary referrals.
We also advocate for alleviating school overcrowding, and work for more parent decision-making in the area of education policy, including the ability of parents to protect their children’s privacy and control the disclosure of their personal student data.
Leonie was a public school parent for 15 years. She received the John Dewey award from the United Federation of Teachers in 2007, was named one of NYC’s “family heroes” by NYC Family Magazine in 2009, and was honored as an “Extraordinary Advocate for our Children” by Advocates for Justice in 2012.
In 2014, she received the “Parent Voice” award from Parents Across America for her work defeating inBloom and protecting student privacy. In 2015, she was named one of the ten most influential people in education technology by Tech and Learning Magazine. She blogs at the NYC Public School Parents .
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Sorry the link is https://www.opednews.com/Quicklink/Trump-s-Education-Budget-W-in-General_News-Budget-Held-Hostage_Budget-Shortfall_Congress_Diane-Ravitch-170501-467.html#comment656591
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Diane: The organizers for the March for Public Education have asked me to begin a blog to augment their efforts to promote the July 22, 2017 march. I would appreciate your support: https://medium.com/march-for-public-education
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