U.S. Department of Education

Rev. Calvin Butts' School Tells Parents Not to Speak With the Media; Actually Claims It Could Endanger Their Safety

In what one observer called a "ham-handed attempt to control the media," officials at the Thurgood Marshall Academy, a public school founded by Rev. Calvin Butts' Abyssinian Development Corp., sent out a memo last week telling parents to refuse to talk to reporters. The memo was sent out to parents ... More >>

Some Public School Students Will Sit Out State Tests This Week in Protest

"These tests are harmful. They do nothing but stress us out and take away precious learning time. They don't make learning fun, they are all-consuming. ... We do not learn from these tests. Do we not go to school to learn?" Owen Hotaling, a freckled fifth grader in a sweatshirt and a bright red kn ... More >>

City Can (But Won't) Play Its Part in Bus Strike

We're damn-near a month into the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1181's bus-driver and matron strike, and the city is still pretending like it doesn't have everything to do with why this mess continues to drag-on. The union, politicians and parents are begging the city to at least come to the table ... More >>

The Mayor's D.O.E. And UFT Will Resume Talks Today, Just Hours Before $300M Deadline

For whatever the reason, 'coming down to the wire' doesn't cut it here. Maybe it's the $300 million that's at stake. Who knows.As we reported last week, a deadline has been set for tomorrow on statewide teacher evaluation deals. If achieved, the State will qualify for millions in Race to the Top gra ... More >>

Dept. Of Education Dishing Out "Plan B" Pills To Teens: Yay Or Nay?

An anti-abortion group recently commissioned a survey of New York City parents to find out whether they approved of the Department of Education's policy of dishing out Morning After pills ("Plan B") to students as young as 14 years old.The pill, as you probably know, can prevent a pregnancy as long ... More >>

Bloomberg Fail: 'Hit List' Seeks to Close Down 36 Public Schools

Two days ago, City Hall released its 'Progress Report' for the country's largest public school system. In it, 217 of New York City's public schools were blacklisted for receiving either an F, D or the third C in a row on the Department of Education's report cards. It was the highest amount of a ... More >>

UPDATE: Bed-Stuy School Principal Will Not Offer Condoms at Prom But Still Thinks Teens Need 'Em

Looks like the kids are going to be engaging in dangerous sex after all.Yesterday, the Voice reported on an interesting story coming out of Brooklyn, in which a principal of a high school there offered to hand out condoms (rubbers, jimmy-hats, whatever they're calling them these days) at the school' ... More >>

City Council Presses Dept. of Education Officials on Controversial Co-Location Policy

After fielding criticisms earlier this week about the city's policy of shutting down failing schools, Mayor Mike Bloomberg and the Department of Education took heat yesterday for the city's frequent practice of co-locating multiple schools in the same building. At an Education Committee hearing yes ... More >>

Will Student Defaults on Loans Bring Down the U.S. Economy?

Dawn of the debt

City Council: Dept. of Education Has Failed To Secure Needed Medicaid Revenue

Members of the City Council grilled officials from the Department of Education for nearly three hours this morning about its failure to secure tens of millions of dollars in Medicaid revenue owed to the city. The joint hearing of the council's finance and education committees today was sparked by r ... More >>

Bloomberg's Schools: Is This America?

The handcuffing of a seven-year-old suggests that something is very wrong in New York City

Owner of Killer Dog, White Collar Crooks, Kid-Tackler Still Working as NYC Teachers

​Kim DePrima, a special education teacher, was convicted of manslaughter when her pit bulls killed a 90-year-old neighbor. Later, she was arrested again when she hung out with an ex-con while he shot at her ex-boyfriend's house. (A full 9mm round was found in DePrima's car.) She was fined thre ... More >>

NYPD Has $22 Million 'Rubber Room' of Its Own

​The New York Police Department has a $22 million annual payroll of cops who don't work because they have "killed or assaulted people, violated civil rights, beat up their wives or girlfriends, driven drunk or hurt bystanders," according to a report by the New York Post. Dubbed the "rubber-gun ... More >>

Melissa Petro Gives Up Her Fight to be a Teacher after Prostitution Revelation

Melissa Petro​Melissa Petro, the elementary school art teacher who admitted in a Huffington Post article to having worked as a prostitute, spoke publicly today about her resignation from the city's Department of Education. Standing in a small gallery in the National Arts Club, with her lawy ... More >>

Morning Links: First NY Governor's Debate Tonight; Super Typhoon Hits Phillippines; Teachers Fired for Inappropriate Facebooking

​• A sure-to-be-fun (and perhaps the only) debate among New York's seven gubernatorial candidates -- including Andrew Cuomo, Carl Paladino, Charles Barron of the Freedom Party, former "Manhattan Madam" Kristen Davis, Howie Hawkins of the Green Party, Jimmy McMillan of the "Rent Is 2 Damn Hig ... More >>

Brooklyn Has the Most Bedbugs, and Other Findings From the Mayor's Bed Bug Advisory Board (Q&A)

You are getting very itchy.​Yesterday the mayor held a press conference to announce the city's new bed bug plan, a multi-pronged and rather high-minded-seeming (bed bug information portals? bed bug czars?) approach to a completely physical problem: bed bugs feasting on the blood of the city's ... More >>

Jersey Parents Hit with Huge Tuition Bill for Faking NYC Residency

​It's a parent's job to do what's best for their child, but when it comes to a public school education, that job begins and ends in the boundaries of their school district. That is, if the parents are playing by the rules, which one New Jersey family chose to circumvent. After getting busted, ... More >>

Want Elective Office? Filing Deadline for School Council Candidates is Tomorrow

​If you want to run for an office that you actually have a shot at winning, here's you chance: Tomorrow's the deadline to file your candidate application for a seat on either the Citywide Council for English Language Learners or the Citywide Council on Special Education in your district. To ... More >>

Inside a Divided Upper East Side Public School

Whites in the front door, blacks in the back door

Voice Video Shows NYPD Snapping Photos of School Demonstrators at Mayor Bloomberg's House -- Protestors Call It A Legal No-No

Civil Rights attorney Norman Siegel called a press conference Sunday, "outraged" that the NYPD was taking photographs of demonstrators at last Thursday's school closing protest in front of Mayor Bloomberg's house. He was responding to a story posted by the Voice last Friday, in which our video sh ... More >>

Are High-Stakes Tests Harming NYC Schools?

Are No Child Left Behind and Bloomberg's report cards pushing schools to go grade-grubbing?

8 New York City Schools Among U.S. News' Top 100

We're always bitching about city schools, but no less than eight of our high schools are listed among U.S. News & World Reports' "Gold Medal" 100 Best High Schools in the country today. They are Newcomers High School in Long Island City -- the highest local placer at #6, and recipient of an A grade ... More >>

Bake Sale Crackdown

The Department of Education says its bake sale policies will help combat obesity, but students worry they'll be left starved for funds

When Cupcakes are Banned, Only Outlaws Will Have Cupcakes

​Over the weekend, parents who had flocked to Brooklyn Tech for the city's High School Fair were given the depressing news that 100,000 city children had applied for the 5,000 seats available in the 800 specialty programs around town. That makes the Specialized High Schools about twice as se ... More >>

NY1: Swine Flu Victim Wife Sues City

​You remember Queens I.S. assistant principal Mitchell Wiener, the first New Yorker to die in the recent swine flu epidemic (which outbreaks, the Department of Health tells us, have dramatically decreased in recent months). Wiener's wife, who had accused the city of not acting quickly enough t ... More >>

Can All-Male High Schools Boost African-American Boys' Graduation Rates?

Staten Island Student Sent Home for Weird Haircut

Staten Island is trying to get tourists to treat them like all the other boroughs.But they're not like other boroughs -- look at the way they react to asymmetrical haircuts. Eighth-grader Dennis Reynolds came to Barnes Intermediate in Great Kills today with half his head shaved. It's a bit much, but ... More >>

Cheek, in Review: 7 Days of Runnin' Scared

Well, some cowboy's Goin' Galt in Brooklyn Heights, anyway. Photo (c) Charles D Rightbloggers decided President Obama is a fascist. Despite this, and the aid and comfort he gives to pirates, the voters like him anyway -- which figures, since many of them are apparently socialists. Which may be wh ... More >>

Mayor To Deliver "Grim Economic News" at Noon

Comptroller William Thompson having spelled out yesterday the dire state of the city's economy, Mayor Bloomberg is expected to fill us in today at noon about his draconian budget plans. To dull our outrage, he has leaked some details, which appear under headlines like amNY's "Grim economic update li ... More >>

Mayor, on Budget, Wants Labor Givebacks, Albany Ed Money

The Mayor gave a press conference on his budget, and talked about how he hopes to fill a $4 billion gap with concessions from labor on pensions, wages and health care, and a reversal of the Governor's proposed cuts to the city's education budget. Governor Paterson has asked that the state withhold ... More >>

Government In Action: Big Spending at DOE, Big Rush with Term Limits

For Some Black Parents, the New Home Room is Home

Public schools are failing black boys, say a growing number of parents who are homeschooling

Tony Avella is Mad as Hell (And Running for Mayor)

Special Back-to-School Edició

Why don't Mexicans hit the books like everyone else?

Schoolyard Bullies

A policy of cops searching students is in need of a mental detector

Small Order

City leaders want kids out of large schools and into smaller ones. Now one Brooklyn high school is fighting the mandate to close its doors.

Tales Out of School

Bush's policy, as lived by one Bronx teacher

School Bus Union Big is Busted Again

NEST-y Fight Ends

Tales Out of School

Bush's policy, as lived by one Bronx teacher

School Food Firm Passes on Seconds

Your Late Fees, Their Millions

Can't pay your student loan on time? The fat cats at Sallie Mae are so glad to hear it.

Losing Their Lunch: School Food Plan Hits New Snag

And Now, the Fake News From Iraq

Our top 10 suggested headlines for the Pentagon's new, new journalism

Test Pattern

Going inside the school system numbers that some parents want to get beyond

Menu of Snags for School Food Plan

The Class of '05

Congratulations! You made it. Oh, and we owe you an apology for your education.

The Ambition Tax

Why America's young are being crushed by debt—and why no one seems to care

Porn-napped!

High Crimes