With the state facing its grimmest budget outlook in years, the legislative session shows signs of becoming a tug-of-war between public schools and health care—the two biggest recipients of state spending and, not coincidentally, the two heaviest-hitting lobbying forces Albany. Read More
New York's second largest public pension fund continues to move—at a glacial pace—towards a more reasonable and prudent assumption of its future investment earnings. Read More
New city payroll data the Empire Center for Public Policy compiled shows the city’s total pay to school workers increased to $10.73 billion for the 2016-17 school year. That’s up from $10.18 billion the year before. Read More
Twenty-three percent of public school teachers and administrators in New York school districts outside New York City were paid more than $100,000 during the 2016-17 school year, according to data added today to SeeThroughNY, the Empire Center’s transparency website. Read More
The Smart Schools grant-making process has been sluggish and haphazard, reflecting the program’s overly broad standards and goals. Read More
The courtroom war over New York’s school funding is far from over. Read More
Besides having the country's highest per-pupil PreK-12 spending, every New York school district spent more than the national average on a per-pupil basis. Read More
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"Readers will recall that the Empire Center is the think tank that spent months trying to pry Covid data out of Mr. Cuomo’s government, which offered a series of unbelievable excuses for its refusal to disclose...five months after it sued the government, and one week after a state court ruled that the Cuomo administration had violated the law and ordered it to come clean—Team Cuomo finally started coughing up some of the records." -Wall Street Journal, February 19, 2021SIGN UP TO STAY UP TO DATE ON THIS AND THOSE OTHER ISSUES THAT IMPACT NEW YORKERS.