Education cuts are painful, but they\u2019re needed<\/p>\n
Brooklyn: NYC is in a budget crisis of its own making. While there are many reasons we\u2019re in this massive budget hole (illegal immigrant support being the main one), the Department of Education under Mayor Mamdani and Schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels is Exhibit 1 of wasteful spending that can be reined in by the mayor.<\/p>\n
When I began teaching in 1997, the city had 1,100 schools and 1.2 million students, with a budget of $12 billion, an average of $10,000 per student. In 2026, we\u2019re supporting more than 1,800 schools with only 844,000 students. The DOE budget now stands at $36.9 billion, a whopping $43,720 per student. Why are we throwing so much money into a shrinking agency? When Mayor Mike Bloomberg began closing low-performing high schools to create small learning communities, costs increased tremendously. South Shore High School in Brooklyn went from one principal and administration to seven principals, seven separate budgets and seven unique needs. If we assume a principal\u2019s salary of $100,000, the cost of supervision increased to $800,000.<\/p>\n
Our student population is shrinking. Even with the new class size law, we have space in these buildings. We should consider merging these smaller schools to fit the campuses they occupy. Doing this won\u2019t be easy. Many people will be at risk of losing their positions, and that\u2019s a challenge. These are challenging times. Real leadership means looking at what\u2019s happening objectively and making the cuts where they\u2019re needed. Susan Caprio<\/p>\n
Lost deterrence<\/p>\n
Brooklyn: Mayor Mamdani has told police officers to stop giving criminal summonses to e-bike riders<\/a>. From 2019 to 2023, there were more than 666 fires caused by lithium-ion batteries from e-bikes. There were hundreds of injuries and 28 deaths in that time. In 2024, there were 279 fires and six deaths. By March 2026, lithium-ion battery fires in NYC have risen by 53% for the year compared to the same period in 2025. These are facts, not fiction. The mayor needs to either eliminate these bikes or have them registered. If e-bikes go by the same rules as cars, you make money. When officers pull them over and they\u2019re not registered, they\u2019re off the street, period. If this doesn\u2019t happen, the statistics will continue to rise. Does the mayor care? If he did, he would act sensibly instead of telling officers to let riders go. John De Angelo<\/p>\n Wet behind the ears<\/p>\n Brooklyn: Mamdani, New York City\u2019s youngest mayor in about a century, has filled City Hall with people who are also in their 30s or even younger. The mayor\u2019s chief of staff, Elle Bisgaard-Church, is 34. His communications director, Anna Bahr, is 33. Joe Calvello, his press secretary, is 33. His closest outside adviser, Morris Katz, is 26. As someone who has served in senior-level positions in federal, state and city administrations, I am very concerned about the future of our city. We\u2019ve already seen several reversals of important policies the mayor supported during the campaign. This type of flip-flopping leads to a serious loss of credibility for this mayor and his administration. He needs to hire more experienced staff as soon as possible. Robert Mascali<\/p>\n Reverse course<\/p>\n Manhattan: Thank you, Daily News, for your clear account of the role renewable energy plays in buffering different countries\u2019 dependence on fossil fuel imports (\u201cEnergy fallout from Iran war brings new call for renewables<\/a>,\u201d March 25). Your article clearly shows that the introduction of renewables into each country\u2019s mix of energy sources is a blessing for each country and a process that takes years to become effective. Unfortunately, here in New York and the U.S. as a whole, we\u2019re being pulled backward by reverse processes: Gov. Hochul wants to delay implementation of our sterling climate-change law (Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act) by 10 years while our reverse-gear president impulsively does what he can to break apart billions already invested in renewable energy infrastructure. For our state and national processes to work properly, both leaders need a quick 180 on climate! Rachel Makleff<\/p>\n Playing politics abroad<\/p>\n Brooklyn: To Voicer James Hyland, who slammed ex-CIA director John Brennan\u2019s criticism of the Iran war: I don\u2019t remember seeing a letter from you when Lucifer stood on stage with Vladimir Putin and said he believed Putin instead of America\u2019s intelligence agencies. Hypocrite. June Lowe<\/p>\n Just talk<\/p>\n Staten Island: To Voicer James Hyland: When are you signing up for President Trump\u2019s illegal war with Iran? If so, they can use you to singlehandedly keep the Strait of Hormuz open. If not, please keep your mouth closed. Gary Perl<\/p>\n Small biz boon<\/p>\n Bronx: Let it never be said that Trump hasn\u2019t contributed to the local economy. He has personally motivated me to spend more than $200 at small printing shops and arts and crafts stores to make posters for No Kings protest marches. Glenn O\u2019Sullivan<\/p>\n Feet in the streets<\/p>\n Lakewood, N.J.: To all GOP members of Congress: Do more than 8 million votes mean anything to you? Stop supporting the orange loser. See you in November! Frank Mongiello<\/p>\n Fit for filth<\/p>\n Danbury, Conn.: Many have written to comment on Trump\u2019s uncaring, vile response to the death of Robert Mueller: \u201cGood, I\u2019m glad he\u2019s dead.\u201d Nothing new here. Trump is scum and cares about no one but the badly made-up visage that stares back at him in the mirror. He says the awful things out loud. Voicers commented on what happens when Trump\u2019s demise finally arrives. It reminded me of the death of Harry Cohn, the much-hated head of Columbia Pictures in the \u201950s. At his overflow funeral, Red Skelton said, \u201cIt proves what Harry always said. Give the people what they want and they\u2019ll always come out for it.\u201d I\u2019ll add a comment that got me suspended from Twitter: When Trump dies, he should be buried in a porta-potty. Feel free to add your own follow-up. Maybe ICE agents will be assigned to keep the crowds in line. Michael Eddy<\/p>\n Public putting fund<\/p>\n Bronx: \u201cI\u2019m going to be working for you. I\u2019m not going to have time to go play golf,\u201d Trump repeatedly told crowds during his campaign for the presidency in 2016. During his first term, according to congressional records, he played golf on 293 days \u2014 more than 15% of the time \u2014 at a cost to taxpayers of more than $151 million. As of March 29, he has played golf on more than 25% of his days in office during his current term, at a cost to taxpayers of more than $101 million \u2014 this from the man who told taxpayers in 2025 that children should have \u201ctwo dolls instead of 30 dolls\u201d and a maximum of five pencils. Miriam Levine Helbok<\/p>\n Add your thoughts<\/p>\n Clifton Park, N.Y.: Not that I\u2019d ever advocate defacing U.S. currency, but wouldn\u2019t it be a hoot if everybody wrote their opinion under DJT\u2019s signature, as in \u201cis a jerk\u201d or \u201ccheats at golf\u201d (\u201cMe! Me! Everywhere!<\/a>\u201d column, March 29)? Instead of getting angry at his narcissism, you get to see the creativity of \u201cwe the people\u201d whenever you get a Trump dollar bill. John Landers<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Education cuts are painful, but they\u2019re needed Brooklyn: NYC is in a budget crisis of its own making.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":180568,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[9,24,264,56,63,65,64,299],"class_list":{"0":"post-180567","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-new-york","9":"tag-new-york-city","10":"tag-new-york-county","11":"tag-ny","12":"tag-nyc","13":"tag-nyc-headlines","14":"tag-nyc-news","15":"tag-opinion"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180567","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=180567"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180567\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/180568"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=180567"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=180567"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=180567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}