LEONIE HAIMSON

Today I met with Leonie Haimson the founder of the non-profit Class Size Matters, based in Greenwich Village. I met her at the Washington Square Diner, for an all-American breakfast.

We had an in-depth conversation about the state of public schooling in New York, Leonie had year of experience working with and for schools and had a lot to say. We discussed everything from the issue of big classes and small schools, the rise of charter schools, the ineffective planning system for school construction, the rise of property building but the stagnation of school building, overcrowding, the rise of investment in Pre-K at the expense of K-12 education and the ways in which the administration has failed to meet its promises on schools.

It was an interesting discussion overall, and gave me a lot of insights into the complicated bureaucracy and processes that goes into fighting for policy reform, let alone getting the SCA and DOE to approve the construction of new school buildings.