Governor Andrew Cuomo outlined a set of education reforms in his State of the State address last week that should remove any doubt that he sees teachers and their unions as the root cause of the state’s education problems. And that he’s ready to go to war to fix them. “Our education system needs dramatic […]
Tim Louis Macaluso
I was born and raised in the Rochester area, but I lived in California and Florida before returning home about 12 years ago. I'm a vegetarian and live with my husband and our three pugs. I cover education, health care, and local politics for City.
Posted inNews & Opinion
Cost concerns about renovating School No. 16
It took many months for residents and parents in the 19th Ward to convince Rochester schools Superintendent Bolgen Vargas to save School No. 16 — the school is closed until renovations can be done. And they got Vargas to include No. 16 in the second phase of the district’s massive $1.2 billion school building modernization plan. […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
Cuomo to teachers: Who are we kidding?
Most pols love industries. The more the better. They offer them tax breaks and other perks in the hope that they’ll create jobs. But Governor Andrew Cuomo made it clear in his State of the State speech yesterday that there’s at least one – what he calls the education industry – that is no longer […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
Specialists for special education
If the Rochester City School District is to have any chance of significantly increasing its graduation rate, it must improve outcomes for special-education students. To that end, the district is expanding its use of consultant teaching, which provides specialized help for students when needed. Roughly 17.1 percent of city school students have some type of […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
More than half of US students are from poor households
A new report by the Southern Education Foundation reveals something that probably won’t surprise many public school teachers and staff: more than half of America’s school children — 51 percent — come from poor households. The figure is the highest it’s been in nearly 50 years, marking a 30-year trend in the country’s growing rate […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
DiNapoli’s report on school safety raises serious questions
A recent report from State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli’s office offered a sobering look at safety in some of New York’s public schools. A random audit of seven schools during the 2011-2012 school year showed that the schools failed to correctly report instances such as student violence, weapons possession, and sexual offenses. Rochester’s East High School […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
Rural schools see a financial cliff
Funding for New York State’s public schools has for years been a source of tension between school district administrators, teachers unions, and lawmakers. New York’s schools are among the most racially and economically segregated in the country, according to a recent New York Times article. The problems — not enough funding and inequality in the […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
Rochester’s big growth area: poverty
While unemployment is down both locally and nationally, the Dow is up, and the economy is clearly improving, Rochester is bucking the trends and sinking deeper into poverty. And the city’s children are suffering the most. Rochester now has the distinction of being the only one of similar-sized cities to have more than 50 percent […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
Bob Duffy dishes
Bob Duffy says he just wanted to come home. Rochester’s former mayor and New York’s former lieutenant governor is back in the Flower City, heading up the Rochester Business Alliance. Rumors of a rift with Governor Andrew Cuomo are off-target, Duffy says; he loved being New York’s No. 2. But Rochester beckoned. “I loved the […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
Parent makes tough decision concerning RCSD
When people talk about Rochester’s schools, the conversation often involves sweeping generalizations, bad-mouthing teachers, and characterizing city children and parents in unfair ways. Some of the most challenging and effective work in education is being done in city schools; and many parents are elated with their children’s school and teachers. But that work and the […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
Cuomo flip-flops on legislation to protect teachers
The other shoe has fallen. Just days ago, an aide to Governor Andrew Cuomo sent what some describe as a fairly pointed anti-teacher letter to State Education Commissioner John King and Regents Chancellor Merryl Tisch, seeking advice for improving education in New York. The letter attaches student performance almost entirely to teacher performance and raises questions […]
Posted inCulture
The Rochester 10
The Greater Rochester area is filled with talented, driven people working to make the region a better place to live, work, and play. But often it seems that the same names dominate headlines, while others who are working tirelessly within their own spheres go under the radar. This annual project — the Rochester 10 — […]
