Author: Alex Zimmerman

Sign up for Chalkbeat New York’s free daily newsletter to get essential news about NYC’s public schools delivered to your inbox.Joe Borelli, a member of New York City’s school board, is facing backlash for using the word retarded in a social media post on Sunday evening.The post was a response to U.S. Rep. Shri Thanedar, who shared a photo of himself on the social media site X smiling in front of a television during Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl performance. Thanedar, a Michigan Democrat, captioned the image: “Loving it!!”Borelli, a member of the city’s Panel for Educational Policy, quoted Thanedar’s post…

Sign up for Chalkbeat New York’s free daily newsletter to get essential news about NYC’s public schools delivered to your inbox.Before Kamar Samuels took the helm of the nation’s largest school system, he set in motion plans to shutter three small middle school programs and relocate another coveted school in the Manhattan district he supervised.Now, those nascent plans in District 3 — which includes the Upper West Side, Morningside Heights, and parts of Harlem — are generating pushback from families who are hoping to persuade Samuels and other top officials to reconsider.How the Education Department reacts will represent the first…

Sign up for Chalkbeat New York’s free daily newsletter to get essential news about NYC’s public schools delivered to your inbox.Zohran Mamdani will take the reins of the nation’s largest school system on Jan. 1, inheriting some big challenges facing the $43 billion agency with roughly 150,000 staff and nearly 900,000 students. Chronic absenteeism remains high, major gaps persist in reading and math proficiency, and enrollment continues to shrink. On the campaign trail, Mamdani did not focus intently on schools, but he made one big education promise: to govern the city’s public schools with more input from New Yorkers and…

Sign up for Chalkbeat New York’s free daily newsletter to get essential news about NYC’s public schools delivered to your inbox.With a little more than a month before Election Day, Mayor Eric Adams announced Sunday that he is ending his bid for reelection, all but guaranteeing the nation’s largest school system will soon be under new management. The move ends speculation in recent weeks that Adams would drop out, as he has consistently polled in last place in the four-way race and multiple news outlets reported that he was negotiating with the Trump administration for a potential job.“Who would have…

Sign up for Chalkbeat New York’s free daily newsletter to get essential news about NYC’s public schools delivered to your inbox.On the first day of school, Zohran Mamdani stood in front of a middle school in Queens with the president of the teachers union and expressed enthusiastic support for a state mandate to reduce class sizes and a new law banning cellphones in school.But, when asked by a reporter, he struggled to lay out how his administration would improve the city’s highest-need schools if he wins in November.Education has not been a focal point in the election, even though the…

Sign up for Chalkbeat New York’s free daily newsletter to get essential news about NYC’s public schools delivered to your inbox.In a striking reversal, the city’s teachers union has declined to endorse a candidate in the Democratic primary for mayor, officials announced Friday afternoon.The United Federation of Teachers’ stamp of approval is widely coveted, as the union is the city’s second largest with nearly 200,000 members, including about 60,000 retirees. But Michael Mulgrew, the union’s president, said there were deep divisions between union members about which candidate has the right experience to manage the city and their positions on issues…