The Department of Education Forced Idaho to Stop Denying Disabled Students an Education. Then Trump Gutted Its Staff. For years, the Education Department was the only agency that could ensure states would improve conditions for disabled children. Now, Trump’s cuts threaten to hamper its oversight.

The Department of Education Forced Idaho to Stop Denying Disabled Students an Education. Then Trump Gutted Its Staff. by @beccasavransky.bsky.social @idahostatesman.com

Arcane Accounting Rule Is Draining Millions From New York Classrooms There are nearly 4,000 outstanding claims currently in a queue that stretches back more than a decade.

Here's something that *didn't* make it into the NY state budget.

NY owes school districts $300+ million in unpaid claims going back more than a decade, and there's no plan to pay it off. @nysfocus.bsky.social

nysfocus.com/2025/05/13/n...

Three-fourths of NSF funding cuts hit education More research terminations expected

Three-fourths of NSF funding cuts hit education

Voting Begins in Teachers Union Elections As Insurgents Vie to Unseat Mulgrew The longtime UFT president’s role in approving the loathed Medicare Advantage cost-savings switch of retiree health insurance has rival candidates gunning to dislodge him.

The longtime UFT president’s role in approving the loathed Medicare Advantage cost-savings switch of retiree health insurance has rival candidates gunning to dislodge him.

www.thecity.nyc/2025/05/12/u...

Exclusive | Andrew Cuomo and other NYC mayoral candidates ‘teach’ for a day in UFT ‘stunt’ — while breaking school rules NYC mayoral candidates vying for an endorsement from the powerful teachers’ union were forced to participate in a “stunt” that apparently violates long-standing rules, The Post has learned.

"The DOE acknowledged that candidates are not permitted to visit schools as a condition for political endorsement by any group, but said regulations carve out 'allowable conditions' for visits. Spokespersons for the DOE and City Hall refused to specify the conditions."
nypost.com/2025/05/10/u...

What’s in the 2025 New York State Budget? Here’s Everything You Need… Our searchable database breaks down what was proposed and what made it in this year's budget among key topics like education, family policy, criminal…

After a MASSIVE lift poring over thousands of pages of the NYS budget, the team at @nysfocus.bsky.social has put together this comprehensive budget guide. It's in-depth, searchable, and easy to understand — completely the opposite of how the state presents it. nysfocus.com/2025/05/10/n...

Important updates here on where things landed with education in NY’s budget. Cellphone ban (big!) and a wild backroom deal to roll back standards for yeshivas.

Albany’s Blueprint for Schools: Cell‑Free Halls, Looser Yeshiva… Hochul’s budget includes $37 billion for education, but the state Education Department is slamming one policy change as “educational malpractice” and a…

It's more than a month late, but we've finally got a state budget!

In our education round-up: a statewide cellphone ban, rollbacks for substantial equivalency and Foundation Aid *finally* gets an update @nysfocus.bsky.social nysfocus.com/2025/05/09/n...

NYC schools to receive $314 million less due to tweaks to state funding formula “A formula once considered among the most progressive in the nation is now being dismantled,” one advocacy group said. City schools will still receive a Foundation Aid increase, however.

New state formula means $314 million less for NYC schools, but city still gets Foundation Aid hike
https://www.chalkbeat.org/newyork/2025/05/08/foundation-aid-formula-kathy-hochul-state-budget-nyc-schools/

Internal VA Emails Reveal How Trump Cuts Jeopardize Veterans’ Care, Including To “Life-Saving Cancer Trials” Despite a congressional mandate to expand care for veterans, internal Veterans Affairs messages obtained by ProPublica paint a stark portrait of how chaotic cost cutting has already imperiled tests of...

NEW INVESTIGATION from me and @vernalcoleman.bsky.social:

Internal emails show doctors and others at VA hospitals around the country begging for help as cuts hurt veterans' care, including "live-saving cancer trials."

www.propublica.org/article/trum...

5 Key Takeaways: How Yonkers Mayor’s Family Profited from His… Nick Spano went from prison sentence to multimillion-dollar lobbying comeback.

Yonkers political insiders have long whispered about how Mayor Mike Spano's administration interacts with a lobbying firm run by two other Spano brothers.

Here are 5 takeaways from our investigation that shed light on those details:

New York’s School Districts Are Shrinking — But Their Financial… New York’s comptroller has flagged 22 school districts as fiscally stressed — up sharply from last year.

ICYMI: New York's population is declining steadily, and it's having a major financial impact on schools. @nysfocus.bsky.social
nysfocus.com/2025/05/02/n...

When kids are evicted, they often lose both home and school Children threatened with eviction are more likely to end up in another district or transfer to another school, often one with less funding, more poverty and lower test scores.

When kids are evicted, they often lose both home and school

Community Education Council elections create fresh headaches after city pauses voting The city Education Department suspended voting Friday to address “technical issues” with voting for the parent councils. Several parents reported glitches and mistakes in the online voting system.

‘Technical issues’ take NYC parent council elections offline on first day of voting
https://www.chalkbeat.org/newyork/2025/04/25/parent-council-elections-offline-after-technical-problems-voting-system/

City College Cops Pepper Spray Students Setting Up ‘Liberated Zone’ The police quickly forced the students off of the CUNY campus in Harlem, and the school is now checking IDs before letting people enter.

CUNY public safety officers and the NYPD quickly quashed an attempt by students to establish a ‘Liberated Zone’ on the quad of City College of New York on Thursday afternoon.

www.thecity.nyc/2025/04/24/c...

omg

NYC needs thousands more teachers. Can it find them within the system? Education Department officials are hoping that education-focused programs at high schools can help the city creatively address a historic teacher hiring challenge.

NYC needs thousands more teachers. Can it grow them from the ground up?
https://www.chalkbeat.org/newyork/2025/04/23/amid-teacher-hiring-challenge-nyc-tries-homegrown-approach/

Trump Administration Texted College Professors’ Personal Phones to Ask If They’re Jewish “Barnard was not given advance notice of this outreach,” the college’s general counsel wrote in an email to faculty.

The federal government is making lists of Jews.

At Barnard College.

In 2025.

theintercept.com/2025/04/23/t...

The Mystery of ICE’s Unidentifiable Arrests In early March, the agency announced that it had arrested forty-eight people in New Mexico—a month later, their identities and whereabouts remain unknown.

In March, 48 people were arrested in New Mexico, according to an ICE press release. Why is nothing known about who was arrested or their whereabouts?

There's evidence that this happens in other states, too.

Reporters in other states: Let's talk! We'd love to help duplicate this investigation across the country.

chris@nysfocus.com

The 5 books are:

It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover
All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson
People Kill People by Ellen Hopkins
Red Hood by Elana K. Arnold
Jesus Land: A Memoir by Julia Scheeres

The school board chose to retain them, a decision NYSED Commissioner Betty Rosa sided with: www.counsel.nysed.gov/Decisions/vo...

This has been an ongoing battle since the fall of 2023, when the plaintiffs first asked the district to remove the books from the school library: www.whec.com/top-news/cly...

Moms for Liberty of Wayne County and the Rev. Jacob Marchitell just lost their legal battle to have five books removed from the Clyde-Savannah School District

Here’s the decision from the court, issued last week:

The NYS Educational Conference Board issues a letter urging the legislature to finalize a budget deal. The deadline for districts to vote on next year's budget is looming and they don't know how much state aid they're getting

Blowing hot air: After ‘AC for All’ push, 1 in 5 NYC classrooms still lack air conditioning NYC spent roughly $500 million to air condition all classrooms. 1 in 5 still lack cool air.

"You got a lot of people running around patting themselves on the back about that, but there are still a lot of spaces that don’t have air conditioning."

www.chalkbeat.org/newyork/2025...

NYC commits $167 million to shore up early childhood education system amid federal threats The move will restore $112 million for 3-K, the city’s free preschool program for 3-year-olds, and $55 million to help address a chronic shortage of seats for preschool children with disabilities.

NYC commits $167 million to shore up early childhood education system amid federal threats
https://www.chalkbeat.org/newyork/2025/04/16/eric-adams-restores-early-childhood-funding-amid-trump-budget-threats/

[via THE CITY 4/16/25] Dozens of NYCHA superintendents and assistant superintendents have received prison sentences ranging from six weeks to 48 months. Many have been ordered to pay NYCHA restitution equal to the sum of the graft they pocketed — from a few thousand dollars up to $329,000. On the other side of this corrupt transaction, however, it’s a very different story. Since the big sweep on Feb. 6, 2024, billed as the biggest one-day takedown in Department of Justice history, NYCHA has awarded hundreds of contracts worth a total of $7.8 million to eight companies whose operators have publicly confessed to participating in the decade-long bribery conspiracy, an investigation by THE CITY has found. All of these corrupt contractors have admitted under oath that they regularly handed over cash bribes from $500 to $2,000 in the basements and stairwells of NYCHA developments to dozens of NYCHA staffers, sometimes for years. **None of the vendors were charged with a crime. All were granted immunity from prosecution in exchange for their testimony against the NYCHA employees they paid off.** [emphasis mine] This crooked system of cash for contracts has worked out well for them. The eight bribe-paying vendors that THE CITY discovered are still getting NYCHA work have, over the years, racked up $70 million in taxpayer-funded contracts for everything from installing vinyl tile to performing minor repairs to painting apartments, an analysis of contract records found.

Hang on. So dozens of NYCHA employees are going to prison but the contractors who bribed them are still getting paid??? www.thecity.nyc/2025/04/16/n...

In New Jersey school segregation case, plaintiffs appeal trial court decision The case, one of few nationally to address systemic racial and socioeconomic segregation on a statewide level, is back in court after mediation stalled earlier this year.

New Jersey school segregation case: Plaintiffs ask higher court to step in
https://www.chalkbeat.org/newark/2025/04/17/new-jersey-school-segregation-case-plaintiffs-appeal-trial-court-order/

Attempt to ban seclusion in Colorado schools fails Seclusion is the practice of shutting a student in a room alone. Parents say it is misused and traumatic, while educators describe it as a necessary last resort.

Colorado lawmakers reject attempt to ban seclusion in schools
https://www.chalkbeat.org/colorado/2025/04/17/lawmakers-reject-attempt-to-ban-seclusion-in-schools/