U.S. Department of Education

System Failure: The Collapse of Public Education

From our high schools to CUNY, New York City's numbers are in—and they are terrifying.

If NYC Public Schools Lose $300 Million In A Week, You Can Thank Politics

Forget about the fiscal cliff in Washington; the kids of New York City are about to jump off one, too. In less than ten days, New York City's public school system stands to gain or lose nearly $300 million of the $700 million allotted to New York State under President Obama's "Race to the Top" prog ... More >>

Parents of Special Needs Children Fed Up With DOE's Flawed School Bus Service

By the time parents got their turn to testify at yesterday's City Council hearing on the city's problematic school bus service, lead officials from the Department of Education, such as Deputy Chancellor of Operations Kathleen Grimm, were long gone. "I'm just so disappointed that the [DOE] and the ... More >>

Students Can Get Plan B Pills At A Few NYC Public Schools Now

The last thing hardcore right-wing conservatives need is more cannon fodder for their whole "America is burning to the ground" argument. But, whatever; we're not worried about them here - that's fellow Voice scribe Roy Edroso's job.According to the Post, the Department of Health confirmed that ... More >>

NYC Taxpayers Might Be On the Hook for Private School Tuition

Just when you thought the New York City school system couldn't get any crazier, a judge has ruled that city taxpayers might be on the hook for one girl's $40,000 private school tuition. The 12-year-old girl, who attended PS 6 on the Upper East Side (one of the city's higher-rated schools), has a le ... More >>

Kids In New York Could One Day Be Allowed To Apply Their Own Sunscreen (With A Note From Mom). Gasp!

Did you know that kids in New York are only allowed to apply sunscreen to themselves at school if they have a note from their doctor saying it's OK? We didn't, but that's apparently the case -- and state Senator Michael Gianaris wants that to change.Gianaris has proposed a bill that would change cur ... More >>

Michelle Obama Launches Recipe Challenge For Parents and Kids

First Lady Michelle Obama is teaming up with Epicurious and the U.S. Department of Education for a recipe contest. Winners will win a trip to Washington, D.C., and have the chance to attend a Kids' "State Dinner" hosted by the White House, where some of the winning recipes will be served. The dinn ... More >>

City Schools Blow It; Send Error-Riddled Stats To Federal Oversight Agency

From the land of the seriously hard to believe, a major statistical report by the New York city Department of Education, which oversees our public schools, to the U.S. Department of Education Office of Civil Rights is so riddled with obvious errors as to be laughable. The exhaustive report covers ... More >>

The Bleak Future for NYC Students

More evidence emerges that the Education Mayor flunked

Bed Bugs Have Tripled in Public Schools

​Bed bugs, we haven't heard much of you this summer. So, you had a party in a Staten Island jail. At least you aren't invading our (well, the tourists') clothing stores. But now we find you're running rampant in schools? Don't you have hearts in those little, brown, blood-sucking bodies? (No.) ... More >>

MyBlockNYC Creates New York Map Alive With YouTube-Ready Videos

​Today in fun, new New York City-related Internet toys, we bring you MyBlockNYC by way of Daily Intel. MyBlockNYC features a map of our beloved town onto which users can upload videos corresponding to different blocks. Near our offices, there's a recent video of a woman playing the Sing for Ho ... More >>

Colleges Forced to Explain Why They Are So Damn Expensive

​Over 500 colleges will have to submit reports to the government explaining tuition hikes, CNN reports. The Department of Education published a list this morning of schools that had the highest tuition increases over the last three years. Both private and public institutions are included and w ... More >>

Subway Adds Avocado; Servers Go Sans Pad

​Subway will add avocado as a premium seasonal topping for a limited time. In addition to special sandwiches like a turkey and bacon avocado sub and BLT with avocado, customers will be able to add the fruit onto any footlong for $1. [Nation's Restaurant News] Recent and ongoing research sugge ... More >>

Today in El Diario: Stop Handcuffing Kids!

​Parents against handcuffing children A group of activists, parents, and politicians gathered Thursday to demand an end to handcuffing students with behavior problems, the Spanish-language daily reports.  City Council member Charles Barron told the media that Department of Education  offi ... More >>

Chancellor Walcott: Change That Kids Can Believe In?

Is the new broom actually just, 'another mouthpiece for the mayor'?

Emptying New York City's Rubber Rooms: Pay a Fine, Teach Again

​The Department of Education recently returned 474 local teachers to the classroom in an attempt to rid New York City of the infamous "rubber room" sitters, in which educators accused of misconduct sit around and do nothing while collecting a full paycheck. The New York Post reports today that ... More >>

Gym-Free Queens School Sounds Awesome, But Is Not

​A high school in Queens just sort of forgot to offer gym classes. Which -- woohoo! But actually, gym credits are required in order to graduate in the New York City public school system. So about 100 seniors at the Robert F. Wagner Secondary School in Long Island City might not be able to graduate ... More >>

Some Schools Could Lose 30 Percent of Teachers under Bloomberg Plan - WNYC

The Bloomberg Administration has announced that some schools could lose up to 30 percent of their teaching force, WNYC is reporting this morning. Under a worst-case scenario, the Department of Education is set to lay off one to five teachers at most schools, with some losing 30 percent of their ove ... More >>

Cathie Black Just Can't Catch a Break (Video)

​Cathie Black is the new Joe Biden. A birth control joke by the novice Schools Chancellor at a parent-school official meeting, followed in quick succession by a Sophie's Choice allusion, have pissed people off royally. Oh come on! The first one's funny, at least.

Breaking: NYC Dept. of Education Chancellor Joel Klein Steps Down, Replaced by Cathie Black, Former Magazine Exec.

​At a press conference today, Joel Klein -- the chancellor of New York City's Department of Education announced that he is stepping down from his position, to be replaced by now-former Hearst chairperson Cathie Black. She is the second chancellor of New York City's Department of Education sinc ... More >>

Volunteer Football Coach Fired by Humorless School for Mooning Opposing Team

​Let this be a lesson to you: If you pull down your pants, even in fun or during a very dramatic football game, even if you get laughs, there will be penance to pay. A volunteer assistant football coach at Boys and Girls High School in Brooklyn has lost his job over mooning opposing fans after ... More >>

New York State Still in Running For Big Bag of Federal Cash

The U.S. Department of Education announced the finalists for federal Race to the Top dollars today, and New York State made the cut. No one should get too excited yet about spending any of that $700 million pile of loot, though. New York is only one of 17 states and the District of Columbia to mak ... More >>

Morning Links: Scary Sinkhole in Guatemala, BP Losing Value Like It's Losing Oil, Real Housewives DWI Bust

​• In the wake of Tropical Storm Agatha, there is a giant sinkhole in Guatemala City, and it is terrifying. "It may look like it's impossible to fix, but we've done it before," says David de Leon, spokesman for the Guatemala disaster response agency. Video of the sinkhole here. • BP has l ... More >>

Pay Low-Income Students to Study? Still No Improvement, Alas

​The Daily News is reporting today that it still doesn't pay to be be poor, even if you're paid for being poor. The Department of Education has been participating in a Harvard study that paid economically poor students at high needs schools to show up for tests and get good grades. The study ... More >>

19 NYC High Schools Were Illegally Closed, Judge Rules; Mike Bloomberg, Joel Klein Get Smacked Down

A judge ruled today that New York City's Department of Education illegally closed 19 high schools earlier this year. Several news outlets are reporting the breaking decision (Post, WABC). The move to close the schools earlier this year was contentious and included a protest in front of Mayor Bloomb ... More >>

Posts of the Week

'Tis Friday. Thus, 'tis time to look back on the best posts of the last 120 hours: We ranked Our 10 Best Sausages. Kunafa is like the Middle East's version of a cheese Danish, and can be found in Bay Ridge. Donatella Arpaia confirmed her cooking show and suggested she might replace Michael Psila ... More >>

Times Notices Conflicts Between Public Schools and Charters

The New York Times reports today that charter schools are sometimes in conflict with their public-school hosts, particularly as regards space, on which some P.S. personnel and parents think they get shafted: at Middle School 126 in Williamsburg, for example, access to the school library is granted t ... More >>

City seeks 4 year olds on craigslist

Facing the loss of state funding for the second year running if Pre-K seats are not filled by 10/31, the city Department of Education has decided to advertise for students online. The city system failed to qualify for $35 million last year when it fell 3,200 short. There are 5,400 seats available, ... More >>

Today's Top Medical Headlines

Washington University in St. Louis, "Cell Phone Ringtones Can Pose Major Distraction, Impair Recall" ("When we played the [LSU] fight song as part of our lab experiments, the distraction factor lasted longer"). University of Arkansas at Little Rock, "Historian Blames 'Criminalization of Poverty' fo ... More >>

Thompson Says DOE Overspent Madly on Ballroom Dancing, Etc.

How did a contact for leasing Xerox machines that was supposed to cost the Department of Education one million dollars end up jumping by more than 6,700 percent? How did a company that was supposed to deliver restaurant supplies to school cafeterias for $15,000 end up billing the city more than $8 ... More >>

Bloomberg Looks at "Targeted Buyouts"; Teachers Eyed?

Payroll is a large part of the city's budget, and it has occurred to Mayor Bloomberg that dropping some workers might effect some savings, says the New York Post. He is said to consider "targeted buyouts to thousands of longtime civilian employees." The Post doesn't say which sectors would be targe ... More >>

Some Bloomberg Budget Cuts Leaked

Study Finds 1/5 of NYC K-8 Students Miss Month or More of School

Bloomberg Goes on Wedgie Patrol

Losing Track of Dropouts—and Successes—in New York City Schools

DOE, City Council and Unions all fail to keep tabs on when NYC schools fail - or succede.

Parents Say Standardized Tests No Way to Pick Kids for Advanced Classes

Looking a Gifted Horse in the Mouth

New DoE School Choice Rules Increase Parental Anxiety

Stuyvesant, Bard Just Missed Mediocrity

Bridge-and-Tunnel Kids

When city parents choose public schools far afield, what are the consequences?

Military Recuiters Gone Wild: Report

Your Own Personal Blackboard Jungle

Fresh from the frontlines, New York Teaching Fellows tell all

The Mayor and His Shock Troops

Will Bloomberg run on his record of bullying schoolchildren and teachers?

City Jobs Kick Ass (Literally)

Unjust Desserts

Pink slips on the menu for school food supplier

Shady Sallie

An inside look at what Bush has done to your student loan

Morning Report 2/7/05
Empty Propaganda

Bloomberg's Accountability?

Eva Moskowitz's prescription: giving kids a fighting chance well before the third grade

Girls in Trouble

'Hooky Party' Puts the Spotlight on Schools' Treatment of Pregnant Teens

Tried and True

Hardest Movie Quiz Answers Revealed