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Education

Education in New York

The largest school system in the country: admissions fights, budget cuts, the chancellor, CUNY, and what actually reaches kids and teachers. The decisions that follow a family for years, explained plainly.

Desks we analyze here: Chalkbeat New York, The 74.

The coverage, newest first

8 stories
  1. August 20, 2026 The paraprofessionals' $10,000 raise becomes law, and City Hall sues, citing union bargaining "Respect Check" passed the Council 49-0. Mamdani campaigned on paying school aides more; City Hall says it still wants them paid but that legislating... Citywide
  2. August 14, 2026 NYC's Reading Score Crash A citywide reading surge evaporated in a single year, and nobody in charge can say why. Citywide
  3. August 13, 2026 Reading scores crash, and the UFT threatens to walk Three years into the city's phonics overhaul, the union that helped sell it is threatening to take its name off the door. Citywide
  4. August 12, 2026 Reading scores erase a year of gains Half the city's kids can't read at grade level, and even the people who ran the test aren't sure why the numbers swung so hard. Citywide
  5. August 11, 2026 NYC Reading Scores Crater Half the city's kids are reading proficiently, down 6 points in a single year, and even the testing experts say the swing looks wrong. Citywide
  6. August 5, 2026 2-K's first 2,000 seats, three applicants deep The city just proved the demand is real. It hasn't proved it can pay for it. Citywide
  7. August 3, 2026 The 2-K childcare chief leaves as the first seats go out The woman who built Mamdani's signature childcare promise from scratch is walking away two days before the first families find out if they got in. Citywide
  8. Saturday, June 20, 2026 City Council passes a $112 billion budget, restoring library cuts The Council clawed back the cuts the Mayor proposed, and the branch libraries stay open six days.

Start here

Explainer How NYC public school admissions actually work Kindergarten runs on zones and a guaranteed seat. High school runs on twelve ranked choices, priority groups, and a random number. The country's biggest school system, from its own enrollment pages.

Education, explained

The questions New Yorkers actually ask.

Who runs New York City’s public schools?

The city does, through the Department of Education and a Mayor-appointed Chancellor, making it the largest school district in the country at more than a million students. But Albany controls a big share of the funding and sets major rules, so a classroom fight is often really a state budget fight.

What’s the deal with NYC’s specialized high school test?

A handful of elite public high schools, Stuyvesant and Bronx Science among them, admit students by a single exam, the SHSAT, which state law protects. Most other schools use a different mix of criteria. Whether that one test is fair is one of the oldest and angriest fights in the city’s schools.

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