Penn Station, AI, and the $1.5 Billion Special Education Problem
Inside the Feds’ new blueprint for the city's worst transit bottleneck, who are NYC's 300,000 chronically absent students, and why more spending won’t fix special ed.
In this issue, we look at who the city’s 300,000 chronically absent students are, what it means when a quarter of the city’s students are deemed disabled, what the internet can teach NYC about AI, and a promising plan to fix Penn Station. Plus, the roundup of the latest local headlines.
Fed’s Penn Station Plan a Promising One
“New York City’s Penn Station is the ultimate transportation planner’s nightmare, dysfunctional on multiple levels and seemingly impossible to fix,” MI’s Eric Kober writes, with plans to improve the station stymied by “the eternal frustrations of cost, funding, and feasibility.”
While public attention fixes on how the station will look, a new Federal Railroad Administration report led by Andy Byford offers a positive plan for fixing how it operates, he writes.
Instead of moving forward with a politically toxic, multibillion-dollar plan to bulldoze a vibrant city block to the south, Byford’s plan seeks to optimize the current station to handle the influx of trains from the new Hudson River tunnels, which are scheduled to open by 2035, while floating “through-running” regional rail as a long-term goal.
However, converting this blueprint into reality will not be easy.
How the Internet Changed NYC
History suggests New York City is uniquely positioned to weather the AI boom, just as it survived the 1990s digital revolution, Stephen Eide writes.
When the internet emerged, Wall Street capitalized heavily as the ultimate backend financier for tech, funneling massive IPO windfalls into the municipal budget—a dynamic likely to repeat with AI giants.
However, AI won’t operate in a vacuum; its rise coincides with a rapidly aging population. Eide sketches out what that and more means for New York.
Special Education
For years, New York City has responded to its special education crisis by spending more money rather than fixing the policies that created it.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani's new preschool expansion that brings special education services inside the school system is a welcome investment, but it won't meaningfully change a system that now costs taxpayers nearly $1.5 billion a year in due-process settlements, also known as Carter cases, MI’s Jennifer Weber writes.
“Nearly one in four public school students now has an IEP [Individual Education Plan], and the numbers continue to rise,” Weber writes. Every new classification requires legally mandated services that the city has struggled to provide.
Her latest piece looks at how we got here, and what structural reforms would make a difference.
Who Are NYC’s 300,000 Chronically Absent Students?
New York City’s education debate remains obsessed with high-profile battles over elite high schools, but to improve its public schools, the city has to address the fact that almost 300,000 students are chronically absent from school.
Attendance is not the only reason for achievement gaps or the dismally low acceptance rates of Black and Hispanic students to the city’s specialized high schools. But it is the prerequisite for every other school improvement effort — students cannot benefit from stronger curriculum or better teachers if they are not in class. Kids in classrooms with high chronic absenteeism end up behind even if they do show up.
In New York, one in three public school students is chronically absent from school, defined as missing 10% or 18+ school days — almost a month of classes. Since the pandemic, the school system has lost about 100,000 students, while the number of those absent is up by 30,000.
More from MI
Mayor Mamdani’s Relentless War on Landlords by Eric Kober.
Mamdani moves to Help New York’s Small Businesses — But He Could Do More by Jarrett Dieterle.
Mamdani and the Left’s Israel Fantasy by Charles fein Lehman.
A new brief: New York City’s Migrant Crisis A Case Study of Welfare Magnet Effects by Stephen Eide.
Extra! Extra!
The impact from the World Cup on local business seems to be positive, with hotels the ultimate winners. The cost of hosting the event is yet to be tallied, while the intangible benefits of bringing joy and unifying the city are priceless.
Leaders and advocates in gentrifying neighborhoods fear that victories by the Democratic Socialists of America could mean political erasure, the Times reports.
A battle in Albany over who should approve and regulate charter schools is escalating, New York Focus reports.
Landlords are suing NYC Rent Guidelines Board over the rent freeze decision, Gothamist reports.
Mamdani’s Commission on Government Efficiency approved the five questions that will be on the ballot in November. They include simplifying review and approvals for use of public space and street safety, like outdoor dining and bike lanes; simplifying government contracting and building permits; and setting contribution goals for the rainy day fund.
Mamdani appointed Anthony Shorris and Lina Khan to lead the Economic Development Agency. Here’s what it may mean.
In a new report, Hunter College and Open Plans, a street advocacy group, look at what lessons New York should take from California when it comes to autonomous vehicles. We had Sam Schwartz and Kelly McGuinness on our podcast not long ago to talk about autonomous vehicles in NYC, and I have some thoughts on this too.