On Wednesday July 25th, the City Council passed a bill saying that students must be allowed to have their cell phones on their way to and from school. This is a great victory for students all around the city. As you all know, the cell phone was a key issue in the creation of the union.

The first NYCSU action was when several students testified against the ban at a City Council hearing. Later in that day NYCSU members from schools around Manhattan came together to protest the ban by performing street theater with cups and string (as phones) on the steps of Tweed Courthouse, where the DoE is located. In September, NYCSU members Laura Johnson and Seth Pearce had a letter to the editor published in the New York Times against the ban.

In response to yesterday’s ruling, Edwize- the UFT blog and the Inside Schools Blog both referenced the NYC Student Union’s actions against the ban.

If you are a student who wants to join the union, email union@nycstudents.org

Today, Seth Pearce of NYCSU was featured on the front page of a NY State Politics blog, The Albany Project, writing about class size and the Contracts for Excellence.

On Wednesday, July 11th NYCSU Member Seth Pearce spoke at the DOE’s public hearings on the 228 million dollars that has been given to New York City Schools as part of the State’s Contract for Excellence. In his testimony below, Seth speaks out in favor of using the money to reduce class size.

Good evening and thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak tonight. My name is Seth Pearce and I am going into my senior year at LaGuardia High School. I am also a representative of the New York City Student Union. As a student, I firmly believe that more money from the Contracts For Excellence should be dedicated to reducing class size. This sentiment is echoed by many of my peers at the NYC Student Union. They each have their own stories about how they have been academically shortchanged by the City’s incredibly large classes.

At one NYC Student Union meeting, a student noted that certain teachers did not even know their name. Sadly, this has become a cliche. It has been said that two of the most important factors in improving our schools are improving teacher quality and reducing class size. These factors go hand in hand. I believe that that student’s teachers, who ignored them, would not have, had there been several fewer students in their class. Reducing class size is instrumental to improving teacher quality.

At many of the New York City Student Union’s meetings this year, the issue of student apathy as a cause for many of our schools’ problems was brought up. For a variety of reasons, many students do not care enough to actively pursue academic success or involve themselves in their school communities. This lack of engagement in our schools must be first remedied in the classroom. We need new and better teaching and learning methods. We need engaging curricula. We need more time on task. However, to explore these necessities, it is imperative that there be smaller classes city-wide. There is not way that a teacher can reasonably keep a class “on task” in a classroom of 34.

According to the DOE web site the citywide average class size is around 28 students. Unfortunately, I cannot recall having that few students in any of my classes. This is a problem and with the Contracts for Excellence money we can come closer to fixing it. Thank You.