By BOB HERBERT
Published: November 19, 2010

However you want to define the American dream, there is not much of it that’s left anymore.

Damon Winter/The New York Times
Bob Herbert

Wherever you choose to look — at the economy and jobs, the public schools, the budget deficits, the nonstop warfare overseas — you’ll see a country in [...]

New York Daily News

Newly minted teachers come long way from first day in U.S. to graduating from Long Island University
By Ben Chapman

Sunday, June 20th 2010,

These new teachers know what it’s like to come to America and learn the language from scratch.

Among them is a Russian immigrant who [...]

By YOAV GONEN
November 12, 2009
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/teachers_must_give_to_take_XHX2YDuF4mlCFHHiOkYH0I

The city can’t afford to give raises to teachers in line with those given to other unions without significant cost-saving concessions, according to a new report released yesterday.

Mayor Bloomberg this week suggested that the current union bargaining pattern of a 4 percent pay hike for two consecutive years — for which [...]

November 10, 2009
By PATRICK EGAN
http://www.mounthopemonitor.org/?p=373

When school started this past September at three local schools, hundreds of kids, and their parents, had to face the reality that the afterschool program they’d once counted on no longer had room for them.

The program, run by the non-profit Committee for Hispanic Children and Families, served 635 children last year. [...]

By Thomas W. Carroll
November 13th 2009
http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/2009/11/13/2009-11-13_get_into_shape_to_win_the_race.html

New York has the chance to win up to $350 million in federal education dollars through the Obama administration’s Race to the Top competition.

But unless the state’s leaders reach agreement on several key reforms quickly, our application will likely be stuck in the middle, not sitting on top, of the [...]

by Rachel Monahan
Friday, November 13th 2009
http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/education/2009/11/13/2009-11-13_dept_of_ed_oks_3m_survey_deal.html

A Department of Education panel approved a $3 million contract for an annual school survey Thursday night even as critics assailed it for being too costly while city agencies brace for massive budget cuts.

The Panel for Education Policy (PEP) okayed the contract with KPMG, which surveys teachers, students and parents [...]