Schools, learning, and the future of work — narrated.
Daily education briefing — schools, higher ed, edtech, and the changing shape of learning — narrated by the Storyflo persona desk.
Private schools, public dollars: A staggering racial gap in NYC special education tuition payments
As Mayor Zohran Mamdani scrambles to plug a multi-billion dollar budget gap, his administration is looking more closely at the money New York City spends on private school tuition for students with di…
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Help us investigate: Where do you see waste in NYC’s $45 billion school budget?
__DEGRADED__ Sign up for Chalkbeat New York’s free daily newsletter to get essential news about NYC’s public schools delivered to your inbox. In Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s quest to trim spending from New York City’s massive municipal budget, there’s no bigger target than the Education Department. The department’s nearly $45 billion budget is the largest of any agency by far, making up roughly a third of the city’s entire budget. The city schools budget has even become a national talking point for critics of Mamdani. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos recently said if he ran his company like New York City ran its schools, it would mean charging customers a $100 fee while taking six weeks to deliver a package. Now, as Mamdani doubles down on his waste-trimming efforts with a new Commission on Government Efficiency, Chalkbeat wants to better understand what the Education Department’s massive budget looks like to the people working in and attending the system every day, and where you see the biggest potential savings. The size and complexity of the budget is difficult to comprehend. It covers everything from staff and supplies at roughly 1,600 district schools as well as the educations of hundreds of thousands of students in charter and private schools and childcare centers. It spends billions on transportation, food, and maintenance. So far, Mamdani’s biggest cost-cutting plan for the Education Department comes from hundreds of millions in expected savings from delayed implementation of the state’s class size law. He’s also pledged to trim spending on students with disabilities attending private schools. City officials are counting on $100 million in savings from “improved financial controls” and tens of millions more from consolidating or eliminating unnecessary contracts, according to budget documents. Chalkbeat wants to hear from you, since where you see the biggest spending inefficiencies could look very different depending on your role in the system. For parents and students, what are the programs and materials at your school that feel least useful? For teachers and school staff, are boxes of new textbooks or laptops gathering dust? For administrators, are there projects, materials or contracts whose costs seem too high? And if you’re involved in larger contracts or spending decisions, are there instances where the city is paying for duplicate services, or contracting out tasks it could do in-house for cheaper? By getting a ground-level view of Education Department spending, Chalkbeat hopes to help create a clearer picture of where the city’s money goes, and we need your help in piecing that image together. Please fill out the form below. If you are having trouble viewing this form, go here. Loading… Michael Elsen-Rooney is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Michael at [email redacted]. Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at [email redacted].
These Colorado counties have very different politics. Both now offer tax relief to childcare providers.
__DEGRADED__ Sign up for Chalkbeat Colorado’s free daily newsletter to get the latest reporting from us, plus curated news from other Colorado outlets, delivered to your inbox. Two Colorado counties on opposite sides of the political spectrum are the first to use a recent state law to provide property tax relief to childcare businesses, in an effort to help stabilize the industry. Adams County commissioners, who are all Democrats, and Douglas County commissioners, who are all Republicans, approved their respective property tax rebate plans this spring. The initiatives, which give extra incentives to childcare providers serving infants and toddlers, will send hundreds of dollars to the smallest providers and thousands to the largest ones starting in the second half of 2026. Lisa Jansen Thompson, who leads the Early Childhood Partnership of Adams County, likened the rebates to one piece in a 1,000-piece jigsaw puzzle. “Every little piece helps,” she said “And the more that we’re able to put together pieces, the closer we get to making childcare affordable for families as well as for providers, and making sure there’s enough.” The new property tax rebate programs are the latest example of efforts by local governments around Colorado to offer financial help to childcare providers, and in turn support the families they serve. In the last few years, voters in more than a dozen cities or counties, including Larimer County and several mountain resort communities, have approved sales or lodging taxes that generate funding for childcare. Such efforts have expanded as childcare providers face increasing financial headwinds: the end of COVID stimulus money, rising costs, and enrollment drops caused by freezes on childcare aid for low-income families. Divine Klutsey, president and CEO of Purple Moon Early Learning Center in Northglenn, said he and his wife have considered closing their center, which enrolls about 80 children, because of barely-there profit margins. One Friday this spring, he was on the phone with a plumber whose visit to fix a leaking sink was going to cost $300. “There’s always something that is not working well,” he said. This year, Purple Moon’s property tax bill is $36,000, Klutsey said. Typically, he takes out a high-interest loan to pay the bill, and then makes weekly payments. “I am still paying the one from last year,” he said. Klutsey doesn’t know exactly how big of a rebate he’ll get back through Adams County’s new program, but said if it covered half his county property taxes it would be a relief. “Then I don’t have to close the business a year or two down the road,” he said. The rebate programs in Adams and Douglas counties are possible because of a 2024 state law that allowed counties to offer tax credits or rebates to address local challenges such as housing, childcare, job training, or renewable energy. Only childcare businesses that pay property taxes or who rent from landlords that pay property taxes are eligible for the rebates. Childcare programs in public schools and churches aren’t eligible because those institutions don’t typically pay property taxes. Diane Smith, executive director of the Douglas County Early Childhood Council, said private providers tell her the rebates will help level the playing field by cutting some of the overhead costs that other childcare programs don’t have. Adams and Douglas counties will offer 100% rebates on county property taxes for two categories of providers: home-based programs and those that have infant and toddler spots. Providers outside of those two categories will get 50% rebates in Adams County and 75% rebates in Douglas County. About 167 providers in Douglas County and 176 providers in Adams County will be eligible for the rebates directly, or through their landlords. Both counties will offer the rebates for one year and county commissioners will consider renewing them next year. Julie Duran Mullica, vice chair of the Adams County Board of Commissioners, said approving the rebates was an easy decision for the five-member board even though it could mean a loss of $700,000 in property tax dollars. “You budget what you value,” she said. “We know how much of a struggle [childcare] is in Adams County.” At the end of the pilot year, Duran Mullica said she’ll want to see data on how many childcare closures the rebates helped and how many seats providers added. Mark Arbitrio, who owns Ivybrook Academy in Castle Rock and paid about $20,000 in property taxes last year, said he’ll use a portion of the rebate he hopes to receive to subdivide one of his four classrooms, so that a portion of the space can be used for a new toddler classroom. That room will create around 18 new half-day toddler spots. Some of the rebate could also go toward retention bonuses for teachers. “They are the glue to everything that we do,” Arbitrio said.
School budgets are under pressure nationwide. Here’s what’s driving the cuts.
School districts are under pressure this year. Some of the largest in the country are handing out pink slips. Cancelling technology contracts.
As farming goes high tech, universities grow new types of agriculture degrees
— From the air, the spring landscape here is a vast expanse of brown farmland stretching out below, ready for farmers to dig in and plant their corn and soybeans, the state’s two top crops.
Can Oklahoma make public education ‘normal’ again?
OKLAHOMA CITY — The most exciting thing about Lindel Fields, Oklahoma’s superintendent of public instruction, is how boring he is.
Texas’ discipline push sends kids to ‘jail-like’ campuses
Angela Comfort still can’t explain exactly what went wrong.
10 years and 16,800 students short: What went wrong with Colorado’s youth apprenticeship program?
Treyvon Greenwood thought he would go into the trades after graduation.
