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Hello from Jackson Heights, where @AOC, @DianeRavitch and state lawmakers are hosting an education town hall. Waiting for things to kick off here. This crowd is huge. Tough to see but probably at least 150 people here. 
More background on this here:
Correction! The folks I listed aren’t the hosts — they’re speaking. I knew that but it’s Saturday, give me a break
First up are Sen. @RJackson_NYC and his chief of staff Johanna Garcia, who's also associated with NYC Opt Out.
Jackson, who led the Campaign for Fiscal Equity lawsuit, which helped establish Foundation Aid, is explaining that fight years ago. Telling parents to get involved. "If you don't know, ask questions. No question is a dumb question."
Garcia is also the president of CEC 6: "When you speak, you're not just speaking for your kids. You're speaking for my kids. And you’re speaking for tomorrow’s kids." Comes back to the mic to ask parents to please opt out of state assessments.
Maria Bautista with Alliance for Quality Education, which has been pushing for more dollars under Foundation Aid, says they're backing two bills: one for more culturally responsive curriculum + one for "safe and supportive schools" (part of it calls to end suspensions in K-3).
Leonie Haimson, founder/director of Class Size Matters, telling the crowd about their push to reduce class sizes in New York City. They want to the city to dedicate $200 million in the next budget for smaller class sizes.
(I'd think that would mean more seats + more teachers)
As Carol Burris speaks (now exec director of Network for Public Education Foundation), this slide goes up.
Diane Ravitch is up. "We’re David. Wall Street and the billionaires are Goliath. Wall Street and the billionaires want to privatize our public schools." (comes after she says the working title for her new book is "Slaying Goliath").
While this crowd is pretty receptive to the sharp critiques of charter schools, the cheers are the loudest when English language learners/bilingual education is mentioned.
She strongly urges parents to opt out of assessments.
State Sen. Jessica Ramos is up. She said the budget process has been really tough, but both houses boosted foundation aid in their own budget plans (more than Gov. Cuomo wants). "Gov. Cuomo has never seen pressure like this."
Ramos also says she's a supporter of mayoral control of schools, but she wants certain changes to governance (like her colleagues, see: chalkbeat.org/posts/ny/2019/…). Called this push to tweak the governance structure as an "uphill battle."
Sen. John Liu, who chairs the Senate's NYC education committee, talks about the hearing yesterday and says the political shift in the state Senate has taken politics out of the conversation about mayoral control (which he calls mayoral accountability)
AOC is up. She's talking about her early experience with schools. Says that when the family moved out to Westchester, her school thought she needed remedial education because she spoke two languages.
"It wasn’t until I took a high-stakes test where I scored in the 99th percentile across the board where they figured out I did not need remedial education. It took a test instead of understanding the child in front of them." (was this a state assessment??)
OK Q&A has started. First question: How can we eliminate testing from ESSA? AOC: Goes back to community organizing. "I think that one of the ways we do that when we start talking about education when we get things out is building awareness."
Ravitch rips high-stakes testing again. Says best thing that could happen would be a federal amendment removing testing.
On a Q about expanding bilingual ed, AOC again points to community organizing. Says you can create "a lot of unity" and parents should demand children learn two languages. "Way to do it is telling the truth about it. Learning two languages from a young age is good for you."
Ravitch, on a different topic, says the city lost democracy when mayoral control was ushered in. She said the city was under a "dictatorship" with Mayor Bloomberg. Someone in the crowd yelled, "We still do with de Blasio!"
A scene just played out here. There are tons of questions about the SHSAT. As Maria from AQE defends scrapping the SHSAT, a few Asian activists in the back of the room, holding signs that say "Asian Racism," shout "we are part of the minority!"
Ramos says to the folks in the back: "People who look like me and black people are not being accepted into specialized high schools in an equitable way." Activists in the back shouting back. Ramos says "please don't interrupt me."
