New York is Now a Swing State? Not so Fast!
The election results surprised a lot of people. I was very surprised with the NY results. But that doesn't mean that much has changed here in New York…
The election results surprised a lot of people. I was very surprised with the NY results. Democrats lost their supermajority in the NY State Senate (with one race still too close to call), Brooklyn and LI elected Republicans for the first time (see Steve Chan and Daniel Norber), and 30% of New Yorkers voted for Trump! Understandably, New Yorkers changed their votes. You can't have such a surge in crime, disorder, out migration and expect people to vote in the same way.
Here is what is not surprising: Prop 1 passed. Honestly, 61% approval is much lower than I expected.
But the biggest surprise was that the Board of Regents recommended to eliminate the HS Regents exam on the Monday before the election - please don't think that they were trying to avoid media coverage :)
PEP will Vote on SHSAT Contract
The PEP (Panel on Education Policy) will vote next Wednesday to approve the SHSAT contract. If you remember their vote on the G&T contract, that was the end of any option for advanced students in NYC (unless you have money to pay for a private school, which so many of the anti-G&T activists do and made that choice for their kids). Here is what you can do:
Join the CCHS meeting today at 6pm and sign up to speak in favor of their resolution asking the PEP to approve the contract.
Email the CCHS to support their resolution (CCHS@schools.nyc.gov)
Write to the PEP asking them to approve the contract for SHSAT.Join the PEP meeting on Nov 20th at 6pm at The Michael J. Petrides School (715 Ocean Terrace, Staten Island, New York 10301) and speak in favor of approving the contract. If you can't be there, you can watch the meeting here.
NYC Council’s $1.2M Black Box: A Study in Financial Opacity
Sam Antar (remember Crazy Eddie?) audited the NYC City Council and found where they spend our tax dollars without any accountability. “Nearly $1.2 million has been spent without a single disclosed purpose or destination.” Read their entire report and ask Speaker Adrienne Adams, City Comptroller Brad Lander and Council Finance Chair Justin Brannan to offer more details to New Yorkers on how this money is being spent.
What Caught my Attention Recently:
→ The corruption in our schools continues: NYC's Special Commissioner is investigating whether Eric Adams' DOE girlfriend Tracey Collins put in vacation time for luxury trips with the mayor, and had a “no-show” job.
→ Pundits are saying that school choice helped Republicans win the Latino vote
→ What Will the 2024 Elections Mean for Education? Some great people discussed this at AEI
→ I watched this documentary about NYC, and it gives a good historical perspective on crime and education in our city (you can watch for free with Prime Video)