And what was the first measure Eliot Spitzer proposed in the education part of his State of the State speech [pdf] today?
Yes! Lower class size. Sometimes you feel like you’re spitting in the wind; sometimes you realize just how powerful a dogged popular campaign can be. New Yorkers for Smaller Classes, a coalition the UFT helped launch, has gathered over 100,000 signatures for lower class size, sued the Bloomberg administration, marched and chanted. Supporters have come to endless rallies, handed out flyers at schools, subway stops, in parks and concerts and everywhere. There were plenty of times it looked like a lost cause. But hey, Day One everything changes, right?
In the past, Spitzer has not singled out class size reduction as a main priority. But today it was front and center: “In exchange for this [increased education] funding, school districts must invest in programs that have been proven to work. All of us in this chamber know that smaller class size matters, espeically for younger students.”
That’s what he said, and he said it loud and clear. He went on to call for a longer school day and year, after-school programs, school Internet libraries and improved teaching. He made univeral pre-K and raising the state charter cap additional major proirities.
The road ahead is unquestionably bumpy but this was a big victory, folks.
3 Comments:
1 guidancehelpme
· Jan 3, 2007 at 6:01 pm
Yay a longer school day! Just what we all want- working longer hours with kids who already burnt out 2 hours ago. Children do not need a longer school day. They need to get off the computer and the video games and to go outside and get some fresh air. Did the powers that be miss the study on how important play is to children?
2 xkaydet65
· Jan 4, 2007 at 5:22 pm
Yeh a longer day and year. How’s that going to go over in Garden City and Ardsley? I’m sure they’re thrilled.
Guidancehelpme is spot on about the kids being burned out. One thing that is rarely mentioned when Asian schools are praised for their longer day is the amount of down time between lessons. Our middle schoolers have four minutes to travel three floors. Any wonder it takes five minutes to get started.
Spitzer is like any politician, whether it’s Jeb Bush, Bloomberg or anyone. They think more is better, more productive, and beneficial for the kids. They only think in purely measurable terms, test scores, day length, year length. They never understand how much of education is art rather than science, and they never will.
Hey will the longer year be pensionable???
3 NYC Educator
· Jan 4, 2007 at 7:13 pm
You know, the more I read this, the less I believe it. Elliot is for small class size, and by the way he wants a longer school day and a longer school year.
That is what it says, isn’t it?