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On the scene and telling it like it is

“My school is bursting with students, and Tweed is to blame.” A must-read article by chapter leader Arthur Goldstein (Francis Lewis HS, Queens) in the Daily News. Overcrowding.More overcrowding.Still more overcrowding. Goldstein reports: “Our building, initially designed for 1,800 students, broke 4,700 this year.”

CAPE & the CEC meeting they attended last night

UPDATENorm Scott alerts us to another description of this event over at Gotham Schools and the “pretty incendiary comments” that follow it. What it boils down to is this: A. Some teachers in public schools are fighting hard for their space, supplies, lower class size and all the essentials of a good learning environment. B. … Continue reading →

Last Wednesday’s protest at PS 123

UPDATE: SEE THE VIDEO and GET READY TO BE SHOCKED Parents speak out, see pictures of the rooms. One telling moment at around 6:32-6:45 — The charter schools kids are being lined up against the wall of the building. They’re obviously a little frightened in the hubbub and it is not clear why they have … Continue reading →

Parents form the "NYC Kids PAC"

More developments in grassroots ed activism. Here’s what Ann Kjellberg sent around two days ago regarding a new Political Action Committee parents have been setting up “to work for the changes we demand in our schools”: Parents learned from the school governance battle in Albany last spring, and the struggle in the City Council for … Continue reading →

Comptroller Thompson TOMORROW, on overcrowding report in NYC

Notice: THOMPSON TO RELEASE REPORT FINDING THAT DOE IS LEAVING STUDENTS IN OVERCROWDED SCHOOLS New York City Comptroller William C. Thompson, Jr. will release a comprehensive study finding that new schools being built or planned by the Department of Education will leave tens of thousands of students in overcrowded facilities on Sunday, September 13th at … Continue reading →

A formal welcome to the CPE and CAPE blogs

It’s one thing to fight on the streets together and a whole other thing to enter to the education blogosphere. You kind of go national in a nanosecond. GEM is late in formally welcoming two blogs to this growing community of activists fighting for the soul of public education. We probably all wish there weren’t … Continue reading →

Annenberg small schools conference

Another ed conference scheduled for this month, this time on small schools placed inside big high schools. Here’s how it’s described: Nowhere has the approach of restructuring large comprehensive high schools been implemented as broadly as in New York City. Since 2000, 27 large comprehensive high schools have been closed and reopened as campuses of … Continue reading →

Separate and Unequal Schools in NYC: Rally at PS 123 on First Day of School

This the first in a series, with a focus on the tactics of Eva Moskowitz and her Harlem Success Academy machine. Join our Protest!Eva Moskowitz and Her Charter School Must Go!Wednesday, September 9th, 20096:30am in the Morning! (and at 3:30PM)West 141st Street and Frederick Douglass Boulevard (8th Avenue)For more information please contact William Hargraves (718) … Continue reading →

This notice is on the airing of a Jonathan Kozol interview — “US Apartheid Education & Flaws in NCLB” — will be repeated at midnight tonight on CSPAN’s BookTV program.Another showing: next Sat., 9/12, 9 a.m. and apparently there Here’s how someone described it: [Kozol] IS A SHARP CRITIC OF THE CLASS AND RACE BASED … Continue reading →

P.S. 123 — taking to the streets again

GEM has reported a couple of times this summer how Eva Moskowitz (on Klein’s left) has been elbowing one of her Harlem Success Academies deeper into P.S. 123 space all summer. Teachers and parents from 123 mounted their first protest on July 7th after hearing reports that their classrooms were being packed up by HSA … Continue reading →