By The Editors 4/17 8:02pm

opinion

Classroom Transparency

Governor Cuomo and other top policymakers and legislators are in the process of negotiating a deal that would give parents of public school children full access to teacher evaluation data. That’s good, but there’s the not-so-good part: The data will not be released to the general public.

That’s a bad deal. How bad? Well, all you need to know is that there has been some discussion about possible prosecution of parents who slip the data to news organizations. That this kind of conversation is taking place at all should persuade Albany to make the data available to everyone. Complete transparency would make the issue of parental prosecution moot.

Those who wish to restrict access to the data note that evaluations of other public employees are not subject to disclosure. That’s true, but other public institutions are not in the midst of a once-in-a-lifetime transformation, at least not to the degree that public education is. Read More

By The Editors 1/17 7:06pm

opinion

Real School Reform, Now

No more excuses. No more delays. No more double-talk. The time for changing the status quo in New York’s public schools is now. The teachers union will either be part of the process or will be crushed. It’s really that simple.

Mayor Bloomberg and Governor Cuomo have made it clear that they no longer will accept the union’s reactionary worldview that change is unnecessary. In separate speeches this week, Mr. Cuomo correctly noted that “we have to realize that our schools are not an employment program,” while the mayor argued that the “school system shouldn’t be run for the people that work in the school system.”

Both of the statements should seem obvious. To the union leaders who claim to represent the city’s public school teachers, the remarks by the governor and the mayor are nothing short of revolutionary. And it’s a revolution they continue to resist. Read More

By The Editors 11/16/11 9:55am

opinion

Not Moving Out: City Life's the Life for We

For many years—decades, in fact—there has been a discernible pattern of migration from the five boroughs. Young singles get married, have babies and then start thinking about safe streets, good schools and picket fences. So they trade city life for a three-bedroom home in the suburbs.

Now, however, that pattern may be subject to change. According to the latest census data, more people moved to the city than moved out last year. Some 252,000 people moved to the city last year, while about 220,000 left for parts unknown. Generally, those numbers are the reverse.

The new figures illustrate a few points, all of them good. Read More

By The Editors 7/26/11 7:35pm

opinion

Mayor Bloomberg Chalks Up Another Win For Reform

Poor performing schools, relics of 20th-century neglect, ought to close. Charter schools, beacons of hope in many poor neighborhoods, should be encouraged.

This may seem like common sense. But for the teachers union and, regrettably, for the New York chapter of the NAACP, these ideas are heresy. That’s why they joined forces to sue the Read More

By David Freedlander 3/29/11 4:19pm

Studies

DiNapoli Says Dept. of Ed Hedging on Drop-out Rates

New York State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli is out with a report today that says that the city’s Department of Education is under-counting its drop-out rate.

According to DiNapoli, the rate is closer to 16.5 percent, a considerable bump over the 13 percent rate that DoE claims.

“The city school system needs to sharpen its pencils Read More

By Amanda Sterling 2/24/11 2:58pm

At the Polls

The Death of LIFO?

It seems that city residents like public school teachers, but aren’t particularly fond of the teachers’ unions. An overwhelming 85 percent of New York voters feel that teacher layoffs should be based on merit as opposed to seniority, a recent Quinnipiac University poll found. 

Most voters felt that the unions did not improve New York’s educational Read More

By Jeremy B. White 1/20/11 11:00pm

Slideshow

Bloomberg's State of the City Speech: The Details

Michael Bloomberg bolstered his reputation for focusing on productivity during a State of the City speech whose unifying thread was his vision of running New York City as efficiently as possible. The city has endured the recession better than the rest of the country, and Bloomberg focused on policies he said would continue to stimulate Read More