The closing bell on Wall Street last Friday also marked the end of the fiscal year for many public pension funds across the country, including the New York State Teachers' Retirement System (NYSTRS), which finances pensions promised to 420,000 active and retired professional educators working mainly for school districts outside New York City. Read More
A searchable online database of earnings for 366,640 employees of New York State school districts outside New York City was posted today at SeeThroughNY.net, the transparency website sponsored by the Empire Center for Public Policy. Read More
Average per-pupil spending under proposed 2013-14 school budgets will rise at the fastest rate in five years, according to an analysis issued today by the Empire Center for Public Policy. Read More
New York City's new schools chancellor, Joel Klein, kicked off his introductory news conference with the observation that ‘resources are scarce.’ True enough—although you wouldn't know it from looking at the Board of Education's budget for 2002-03. Even after the latest round of budget cuts ordered by Mayor Bloomberg, spending will keep pace with inflation. And adjusting for cost-of-living changes, per-pupil expenditures are up 57 percent since 1983. Read More
New York State needs to spend $7 billion more to finance a “sound, basic education” for all pupils, according to the group that successfully sued to overturn the state’s education finance system. What kind of tax hike would it take to pay for such a draconian solution? This memo explores the range of possible answers to that question. Read More
Just when it looked like New York's free-spending public schools were finally about to meaningfully tighten their belts, news came from Washington yesterday that the U.S. Senate had cleared the way for another $26 billion dose of "stimulus"... Read More