{"id":3900,"date":"2026-07-07T10:38:59","date_gmt":"2026-07-07T10:38:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/metrotransitreview.com\/?p=3900"},"modified":"2026-07-07T10:38:59","modified_gmt":"2026-07-07T10:38:59","slug":"906-the-damning-figure-that-tells-the-tragic-story-of-nycs-public-school-failure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/metrotransitreview.com\/?p=3900","title":{"rendered":"906: The damning figure that tells the tragic story of NYC\u2019s public school failure"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

The Success Academy charter-school network\u2019s just-released report on New York City public-school failure is so shocking and troubling that even anti-charter-school teachers unions should be shaking in horror.<\/p>\n

Read more Staggering 900 NYC public schools failing students amid grade inflation, lax accountability<\/a><\/p>\n

The report crunches the numbers on school accountability,\u00a0quality, expenditures and\u00a0standardized test results.<\/p>\n

Its finding? Widespread, pervasive, tragic <\/em>dysfunction. <\/p>\n

A system rife with grade inflation, under-enrolled schools, no accountability and assorted tricks meant to obscure failure.<\/p>\n

Remember this number: 906.<\/em> <\/p>\n

That\u2019s how many perennial failure factories, out of 1,600 city schools, are allowed to fester year after year.<\/p>\n

They enroll 409,379 kids, or 43% of all NYC public\u00a0school children.<\/p>\n

Just how bad are they? In 503 of them, the majority of students failed both<\/em> math\u00a0and reading last year, some for a whole decade.<\/p>\n

Despite massive amounts of extra resources and attempts at reform, these schools have never successfully turned around<\/em>.<\/p>\n

And bizarrely, the more a school fails, the more categorical federal aid it qualifies for \u2014 which gets siphoned into more money for adults before reaching any students.<\/p>\n

The criteria used to identify failing schools \u201cdoes not create accountability,\u201d instead the system \u201ccreates eligibility,\u201d\u00a0charge the authors.<\/p>\n

They flag \u201cthe profound harm done to hundreds\u00a0of thousands of children\u201d and \u201cthe high societal cost of this failure\u201d to properly educate children in poor neighborhoods.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, education funding forever ratchets upward: Mayor Mamdani is handing the Department of Education $38.6 billion this year \u2014 an increase of almost $4 billion<\/em> from last year, despite plummeting enrollment \u2014 with no strings attached<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Read more Erika Kirk rushes out of courtroom before horrific video of Charlie\u2019s assassination plays as she faces down accused killer Tyler Robinson<\/a><\/p>\n

Today, the per-student cost has soared to roughly $49,500 per pupil, among this highest in the nation.<\/p>\n

Anyone who cares about education in the city needs to digest every word of this Success Academy analysis.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat is missing is not money . . . [but] honesty \u2014 honest\u00a0 measurement, honest reporting, and honest consequences when schools\u00a0consistently fail,\u201d conclude the authors.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the takeaway: The New York bureaucracy that runs the system \u2014 officials at DOE, in Albany and in the unions that control them \u2014 intentionally <\/em>mislead and obscure failures, mostly to protect the adults.<\/em> And to hell with the kids. <\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

We can, we must do better: Privately run (but publicly funded) charter schools see far superior results for the same student demographics, and for far less money. <\/p>\n

They\u2019re open with their data, and it\u2019s not just their teachers who face real accountability: Failing charters can, and do, get shut down.<\/p>\n

The solutions are simple: Hold those 906 schools accountable, at long last, and give more parents better options by growing the public charter-school community. <\/p>\n

Start by scrapping the charter cap meant to limit competition for the union-run schools.<\/p>\n

Success Academy has done the city a great service by documenting these schools\u2019 eternal failures. Now it\u2019s time for the city and state to act \u2014 and save the kids of the future before it\u2019s too late.<\/p>\n

Read more Iran fires missiles at commercial ships in Strait of Hormuz: report<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Success Academy’s just-released report on New York City public-school failure is so shocking and troubling that even anti-charter-school teachers unions should be shaking in horror.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3899,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3900","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion"],"yoast_head":"\n906: The damning figure that tells the tragic story of NYC\u2019s public school failure - Metro Transit Review<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/metrotransitreview.com\/?p=3900\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"906: The damning figure that tells the tragic story of NYC\u2019s public school failure - 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