Mike Elsen-Rooney
Covering NYC public schools for @chalkbeat.org
- Great read from @alexzimmerman.bsky.social on NYC’s new chancellor, his vision for the system, and what happens when Mamdani visits an elementary school: www.chalkbeat.org/newyork/2026...
- Come join us Thursday at the Brooklyn Heights library for a conversation on what it means to educate immigrant students in this moment - with educators doing amazing work on the ground + great orgs with resources to share.
- Important reality check from @mattbarnum.bsky.social on the oft-heard refrain that loosening admissions at selective schools will harm the lower-scoring students who get in by setting them up for failure. Research shows precisely the opposite: those students see real benefits.
- New — What the internet backlash over rising remedial math at UC San Diego misses: Yes, it's a problem that math scores are going down, but selective, well-resourced universities are arguably best equipped to help students catch up. cbnewsletters.chalkbeat.org/p/what-the-i...
- One sign of how bad NYC’s child care crisis has gotten: there are *10,000* kids sitting on a waitlist for low-income child care vouchers b/c the program is out of $. Some observers say that’s a logical place for Mamdani to start his push for universal child care: www.chalkbeat.org/newyork/2025...
- And speaking of child care, I’ll be out on parental leave until March! Keep up with my fabulous colleagues @amyzimmer.bsky.social and @alexzimmerman.bsky.social for all your NYC education needs at an interesting time!
- New: the arrival of ~50K migrant students from 2022-24 buoyed NYC schools after years of enrollment decline. But over the past year, as the city closed shelters + Trump took office, that pattern reversed - posing long-term challenges for many schls + the system: www.chalkbeat.org/newyork/2025...
- Rly important work by economist Lauren Melodia finds the median income for NYC’s family child care providers, many of whom rely largely on public funding + will be a critical part of any push for universal child care, is $6 an hour: www.centernyc.org/reports-brie...
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- New w/ @alexzimmerman.bsky.social: NYC declared victory on a major class size deadline: >60% of classes under the caps. What they didn’t mention: they only got there by quietly declaring 10,500 classes exempt. W/o those, DOE would’ve been at 59.5% compliance: www.chalkbeat.org/newyork/2025...
- Principals + parents we spoke w/ at several schools that received exemptions hadn’t even heard about them, much less requested them.
- Mamdani’s visit to a BK child care center yesterday illustrated one of the problems in the system he’ll have to confront: 2 of the center’s classrooms, meant for 3K/PreK, have sat empty for 5 yrs. Citywide, ~27,000 free child care seats, 1 in 5, were empty last yr: www.chalkbeat.org/newyork/2025...
- Most of the conversation about whether Mamdani can deliver universal child care has focused - rightfully - on cost. But I've been curious (as a reporter and parent of an infant + toddler) what it would take operationally. So I talked to lots of knowledgable ppl: www.chalkbeat.org/newyork/2025...
- Plot twist in NYC's chancellor search! Meisha Ross Porter, a former schools chief under de Blasio who's considered a top contender for the job under Mamdani, is a finalist for CEO of Chicago schools. www.chalkbeat.org/chicago/2025...
- A little more election-eve news for NYC schools: Enrollment is down 2.4%, the largest drop in 4 yrs. Seems likely immigration played a role - the influx of 50K migrants propped up NYC’s enrollment the last 3 yrs, but that’s ground to a halt under Trump. www.chalkbeat.org/newyork/2025...
- A bit of news for NYC schools: schools w/ lower-than-projected enrollment won't have to give back $ midyear. That could be especially beneficial to schools that have enrolled large immigrant populations + have seen big drops under Trump. W/ @amyzimmer.bsky.social: www.chalkbeat.org/newyork/2025...
- Hundreds of thousands of NYC students + families are about to lose SNAP. Their schools are scrambling to set up ad hoc food pantries, raise $, + collect donations to keep them fed. Another way schools are trying to hold up a crumbling social safety net: www.chalkbeat.org/newyork/2025...
- As momentum builds for universal child care in NYC, the city is for the first time piloting free, non-means-tested seats for kids 2 and under. Here's the list of neighborhoods getting priority: www.chalkbeat.org/newyork/2025...
- As more NYC public school parents are detained by ICE, schools are often the first places the family members left behind turn for help picking up the pieces. Here’s how some schools are supporting those students: www.chalkbeat.org/newyork/2025...
- Reposted by Mike Elsen-RooneyAfter Mamdani announced plans to phase out gifted programs, Cuomo + Sliwa said they would expand them instead Eric Adams tried to do that — and roughly 1 in 3 of the city's gifted programs are underenrolled. Heres why w/ @michaelelsenroo.bsky.social www.chalkbeat.org/newyork/2025...
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- Mamdani announcing a teacher recruitment plan where NYC will offer tuition assistance, mentorship, other support to prospective teachers in exchange for commitments to stay at least 3 years. Class size law requires thousands of addl teacher hires in coming years
- Lost in the debate over NYC’s gifted and talented program rekindled by Mamdani’s proposal was the fact that the program underwent a big change in recent years: eliminating its admissions test. @alexzimmerman.bsky.social dug into how that change has played out: www.chalkbeat.org/newyork/2025...
- The rare feel-good gov't shutdown story: I talked to some Bronx 8th-graders on a field trip to DC whose tour of the Capitol was canceled bc of the shutdown - and who ended up getting a personal tour from @aoc.bsky.social instead: www.chalkbeat.org/newyork/2025...
- Eric Adams’ first schools Chancellor David Banks shares his thoughts on the last year of Adams’ tenure as news comes he won’t seek a second term. Via @alexzimmerman.bsky.social: www.chalkbeat.org/newyork/2025...
- “It’s truly more socializing than I’ve seen in my 10 years working in a high school.” Seyma Bayram w/ a great story on the early challenges + triumphs of school without phones in NYC. www.chalkbeat.org/newyork/2025...
- More from @amyzimmer.bsky.social and @alexzimmerman.bsky.social on why Adams does not have legal authority to roll back the DOE's bathroom access policies for trans students in NYC despite these comments: www.chalkbeat.org/newyork/2025...
- Families of gender-nonconforming students in NYC have been worried about something like this for months given Mayor Adams’ stance towards Trump + his wide authority over schools (www.chalkbeat.org/newyork/2025...). Now Adams is openly promising to review school bathroom policy.
- Families of gender-nonconforming students in NYC have been worried about something like this for months given Mayor Adams’ stance towards Trump + his wide authority over schools (www.chalkbeat.org/newyork/2025...). Now Adams is openly promising to review school bathroom policy.
- Really excited for this talk next week at Lofty Pigeon about two important books. NYC education folks - would love to see you there!
- This is the right time to talk about politics and policies in NYC schools! I'm really looking forward to this @bkbookfest.bsky.social conversation with @michaelelsenroo.bsky.social and Ryane Straus. Please join us! www.eventbrite.com/e/diversity-...
- Always a pretty wild reminder of the scale of NYC’s school system to see the class of new teachers assembled in the same place
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- Thank you @bgrueskin.bsky.social for highlighting my reporting on a Bronx HS and undocumented teen navigating the Trump administration. Here’s Part 1: www.chalkbeat.org/newyork/2025... And Part 2: www.chalkbeat.org/newyork/2025...
- "Her unexpected removal...will likely have a deep emotional impact on her classmates and our entire school community. She belongs with her family and her classmates." Message from principal of P.S. 89 in Queens, whose 7 y/o student was detained by ICE + sent to Texas, via @gwynnefitz.bsky.social
- Part 2 is out today. It’s about what happens after the deportation campaign arrives at ELLIS’ doorstep and the difficult choices facing Bridget and the school as they try to make it through the Trump administration. www.chalkbeat.org/newyork/2025...
- For 6 months, I’ve followed ELLIS, a Bronx HS for newcomers, to understand what it means to educate immigrant students in Trump’s second term. Proud to share the 1st of 2 stories about ELLIS, Bridget, an undocumented teen, & the fight to keep her education alive. www.chalkbeat.org/newyork/2025...
- So lucky to work with amazing photographers like Jose Alvarado and Wendy Correa whose stirring images bring this story to life.
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- For 6 months, I’ve followed ELLIS, a Bronx HS for newcomers, to understand what it means to educate immigrant students in Trump’s second term. Proud to share the 1st of 2 stories about ELLIS, Bridget, an undocumented teen, & the fight to keep her education alive. www.chalkbeat.org/newyork/2025...
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- For 6 months, I’ve followed ELLIS, a Bronx HS for newcomers, to understand what it means to educate immigrant students in Trump’s second term. Proud to share the 1st of 2 stories about ELLIS, Bridget, an undocumented teen, & the fight to keep her education alive. www.chalkbeat.org/newyork/2025...
- Several months into my time at ELLIS, one of their students - a friend of Bridget’s - was detained by ICE (www.chalkbeat.org/newyork/2025...) Part 2 looks at how ELLIS + Bridget picked up the pieces - + how they’re adapting to survive the Trump administration.
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- Enraging story from @alexzimmerman.bsky.social. NYC hasn’t paid its ~1,000 Teaching Fellows the entire 7 weeks they’ve been working this summer, forcing some to go into debt to cover rent and food. This at a time the city is trying to hire in historic numbers: www.chalkbeat.org/newyork/2025...
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- A Queens 11th-grader detained by ICE last month is set to be released from the Texas detention center he’s been for a month following a judge’s order today: www.chalkbeat.org/newyork/2025...
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- Schools across NYC are celebrating graduation this week. At ELLIS Prep, which still has a student in ICE detention, national immigration politics loomed large over the ceremony: www.chalkbeat.org/newyork/2025...
- Reposted by Mike Elsen-RooneyMayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani’s school plans include advocating for shared governance, addressing issues like homelessness, and examining the specialized high school admissions test.
- What happens w/ mayoral control of NYC schools (up for renewal in 2026) is going to be really interesting if Mamdani wins. And fwiw Mamdani himself gave perhaps the most clearly anti-mayoral control response of all the mayoral contenders we asked about it: www.chalkbeat.org/newyork/2025...
- A City Council hearing on NYC school segregation + diversity, postponed in Feb amid fears it could make the city a target of the Trump admin (www.chalkbeat.org/newyork/2025...), is now underway: www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_zW...
