There's not one, not two, but FOUR relatively negative stories about the Department of Education today. The Daily News reports that more than a third of public school students are in overcrowded classrooms; a report says 167,000 new seats are needed, but the city is only planning on 63,000 more. The News' Juan Gonzalez also finds that the DOE spends $5 million on couriers--double what was spent in 2002--mostly due to the couriering of tests.......

The New School's Center for New York City Affairs issued a troubling report finding that "more than 90,000 children in grades K through 5 (more than 20 percent of enrollment) missed at least one month of school." And, "In high poverty neighborhoods, the number was far higher, approaching one-third of primary grade students." You can read the whole report here--PDF--but here's an excerpt from the executive summary:There are many reasons for high rates of......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: A serious MVA on the upper level of the Verrazano Narrows Bridge, a suspicious package in Manhattan, and an overturned auto in Queens The things we learn as the Daily Intelligencer questions disclosure on Gawker... then FishbowlNY discloses some stuff about itself and Daily Intel Newly elected City Council members Mathieu Eugene and Vincent Ignizio are still not sworn in The stock market gained 0.4% today Do students really......

Police are looking for a man who is lurking around Queens neighborhoods, assaulting children. First, around 2:30PM on Friday, a man approached three children at a playground near PS 118 in Hollis. He exposed himself to an 11-year-old boy and two 9-year-old girls. The children got away. Then, at 4:30PM, he grabbed a 13-year-old walking home from school near 110th Avenue and 195 St. and pulled her into an alleyway and attacked her. Police say......

One of the 40 new schools the city is opening in the fall will be the first public school dedicated teaching the Arabic language and culture. The NY Times reports that half of the classes at the Khalil Gibran International Academy will eventually be taught in Arabic. It will be located in Brooklyn, though it's unclear where yet. Principal Debbie Almontaser says the school will start out with just sixth graders, but will eventually have......

Hello, everybody. We've had a couple of exciting months, launching SFist and DCist as well as growing our staff, and have a busy fall/winter planned as well: - On September 30, there will be a second New York City Photobloggers event. Hosted by Rion and Jake, the evening's speakers include Eliot, David, Mike and many others. The action will begin at 6PM at the SoHo Apple Store. - On November 16, Gothamist will have its......

In a tradition that totally skipped Gothamist's high schools, the annual fistfight that the girls at Peabody High School have got so out of hand that the police had to step in. One student said, "People knew this was coming because it almost happened on Friday. They should have known that it was going to be the last day of school and there was going to be fighting everywhere." Another said, "There were students......