By now, it's quite clear that the battle over charter schools inspires a lot of controversy, dissension, and bickering. Things have gotten particularly heated this week at Public School/Middle School 149 in Harlem, which shares space with the Harlem Success Academy charter. And someone just couldn't help but bring Hitler into this fight. more ›

This is awesome: A Queens woman is asking a judge to make the state pay for her five children to get a private school education. The basis for Dianne Payne's claim is that since the state owes the city about $5.6 billion to give public school students a basic education, the city is currently failing her kids and therefore, the $12,500 the city reportedly spends per student should just be given directly to her! Payne, who sends two children to private school in Queens, told reporters, "I'm doing my job as a parent. The problem is that the city is not doing its job." While people don't expect her motion to gain any traction (the city calls it "obvious grandstanding"), Gothamist imagines this will pave the way for people suggesting that the city give them the money it uses to maintain the parks because they know how to take care of lawns better. This actually sounds like an extension of the credits for parents who would send their kids fo private school that we think Giuliani floated (it was some politician) a while back - does this still exist? more ›

A $750,000 real estate commission? Gothamist is so totally in the wrong business! A real estate broker is suing two brokers and owner of a building leased to the Department of Education claiming that she was discriminated against because she was Muslim and thereby lost out on a fee. Ihsan Amatullah says she first showed the East 76th Street Sotheby's warehouse where the Department of Education has its Eleanor Roosevelt High School, but that City Councilwoman Eva Moskowitz, head of the council's Education Committee, sent the deal to a "personal friend" broker Peter Berman. Amatullah says that Moskowitz "refused to have a person of Islamic faith broker the lease." Moskowitz, who is not named in the lawsuit, denies that anything like that happened, and Berman's lawyer tells the Post, "There is not one scintilla of truth to any of this." more ›

Imagine being 87 and coming back from a vacation to find that you are no longer able to get into the Upper East Side apartment that you've been living in for 47 years because your new landlord changed the locks. Now imagine finally getting into your apartment, after calling the police to break down the door, and finding out that your new landlord also threw out all of your possessions (except a "calendar, a salt shaker and a La-Z-Boy chair."). Finally imagine that the rent on the apartment that you were no longer living in had been $158.06 a month. more ›

dangerous due to radio waves and possible radiation. Dunh dunh dunh, even though there isn't any conclusive cell phone-cancer link. Moskowitz says a list of the cell phones and how many radio waves will hit your body if you use them sans headphones, and the two worst offenders are Motorola models V.120E and V.60x. Moskowitz said, "I didn't want to be alarmist. I just wanted consumers to be educated and to make their own decisions about the possible health risks." Let's face it - just like Gothamist, she must believe that Special Agent Dana Scully got cancer from her cellphone. more ›

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City Councilwoman Eva Moskowitz is set to release a report on the noisiest bars in the city today, says the Post. The report, based on complaints made to 311, cites Sutra Club on First Avenue as the noisiest bar in the city with a whopping 235 complaints (the owner chalks it up to an angry neighbor who "discovered her power in 311 and would call every single night as a strategy."). The runner-up in noise/complaint production is Morrisey Park on St. Mark's followed by Rothko on Suffolk St followed by the 11th Street Bar. more ›

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Probably feeling that an anti-bullying bill needs a counterpart, the City Council may be considering a "bill of rights" for bullies. Education Committee chair Eva Moskowitz contends that detained kids (juvenile delinquents) don't get good educations and even up falling through the cracks. It would be interesting if the the Department of Education and, well, the NYPD/Department of Corrections, can figure out a way to make that work. Gothamist was struck by these stats that the Post noted: While 1200 school age students come back after spending time in upstate jails, less than a third return to school; plus, it costs about $130,000/year to detain a juvenile offender, versus $13,000/year to educate a NYC public school student. more ›

reports that at least one candidate has begun to rake in some contributions--and from fashionable donors, no less. more ›

Mr. Meer said that after he complained to the principal, toilet paper holders were installed, but that they were difficult to use because the paper did not flow freely.The photograph at top left is of Mr. Meer and a toilet paper holder; it was taken by Newsday's Alejandra Villa and was accompanied by the imcomparable caption, "" Delores Allen, with great-granddaughters at PS 184, wore some toilet paper around her neck, because some school children are given "rolls on a string to wear around their necks" since toilet paper is guarded, lest it be used for play. She said, "It's degrading to children that they have to go back to their classrooms with their little bottoms soiled." Dude, Gothamist is totally going as a NYC public school student for Halloween next year: Spongebob t-shirt, toilet paper around the neck. more ›

This reminds Gothamist of a story from the start of this year where many students admitted they "hold it" and don't go to the bathroom at school. Semi relatedly, the Mayor unveiled a solid waste management plan last week.
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Bad bathrooms are not limited to NYC public schools: Modesto has similar, if not as dire, problems. Hazards of not taking enough bathroom breaks and bathroom worries for kids. more ›