Welcome to New York\u2019s flunking factories.<\/p>\n
Failure in the city\u2019s public education system has become \u201cnormalized\u201d \u2014 and even bolstered by grade inflation and fixing<\/a> \u2014 with nearly half of schools consistently failing their students, a bombshell new report found.<\/p>\n The sweeping analysis, conducted by the Success Academy Charter Schools network, found that in those 906 public schools, fewer than half of students passed math, reading, or both, on state exams last year.<\/p>\n In total, a staggering 43% of the system\u2019s approximately 912,000 students are in these failing schools, according to the shocking report released Tuesday.<\/p>\n Of the 906 schools, a majority of students in 503 of them failed both math and reading.<\/p>\n About a third of the 906 schools have appeared on state \u201caccountability\u201d lists since 2012, and some have been designated as failures for decades, the analysis found.<\/p>\n Instead of attacking the 5-alarm fire, the stinging indictment claims city and state policies have only worsened the situation by failing to address the scandal or trying to hide it.<\/p>\n \u201cThese are not accidents. They are the product of a system that has chosen, year after year, to protect itself rather than serve its students,\u201d the report, titled, \u201cBy Any Honest Measure,\u201d said.<\/p>\n A new study found that about 43% of New York City public school students attend schools where the majority of students are failing math, English or both. Louis-Paul Photo \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n \u201cImagine a hospital where more than half of patients died from routine procedures. A fire department that failed to respond to more than half its calls. A municipal water utility that delivered contaminated water to more than half its residents, or air traffic controllers whose lack of oversight regularly resulted in massive casualties.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cNo other public institution would be permitted to operate in this way.\u201d<\/p>\n But the level of failure in the nation\u2019s largest public school system \u201chas been normalized \u2014 and, worse, systematically obscured.\u201d<\/p>\n Success Academy head, Eva Moskowitz, said the report marked the most extensive review to date of consistently low-performing schools.<\/p>\n The report also accused New York policy makers and educators of actually rewarding failure \u2014 including by pumping more funds into low-performing schools with dwindling enrollment.<\/p>\n Success Academy founder and CEO Eva Moskowitz (pictured) hailed the charter network\u2019s analysis as the most extensive study of low-performing New York City public schools. Paul Martinka for New York Post<\/p>\n New York City spent $40 billion on public education in 2024 \u2014 $36,293 per pupil, double the national average of $17,619.<\/p>\n Lawmakers pump more money into the failing schools, to more than $40,000 per student, the report found.<\/p>\n According to the analysis, 34% of elementary students attend failing schools, with that percentage going up to 49% for middle schoolers and 62% for high schoolers, based on test scores.<\/p>\n In many cases, students are routed from a failing elementary school to a failing middle school to a failing high school.<\/p>\n Many high school graduates are unprepared for college-level work and have to take remedial courses when enrolled in CUNY\u2019s community colleges, the report noted.<\/p>\n The problem would be worse if not for grade inflation<\/a> \u2014 and the accountability system for both students and teachers is a joke, the analysis charged.<\/p>\n The student grading policy measures effort, participation, and attendance \u2014 but excludes performance on the state\u2019s standardized math and English exams.\u00a0<\/p>\n Using state test scores as part of a student\u2019s grade was scrapped by the Panel for Educational Policy under then-Mayor Bill de Blasio.<\/p>\n It means nearly all students who score poorly on state exams end up getting good grades and are promoted.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, state policy forbids using student test scores to evaluate teachers. Therefore, nearly all teachers receive satisfactory ratings.<\/p>\n The front page of the New York Post on Tuesday, July 7, 2026.<\/p>\n The report noted: \u201c98% of teachers [rated] effective. 43% of students failing. The math doesn\u2019t add up.\u201d<\/p>\n The state Education Department also comes under severe criticism \u2014 for repeatedly lowering benchmarks to boost passing rates <\/a>on its math and reading exams, the report said.<\/p>\n The manipulation is exposed when students score much lower on the federal government\u2019s National Assessment of Educational Progress exams, considered the gold standard for testing.<\/p>\n Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels speaking at a Brooklyn school on Jan. 14, 2026. Gregory P. Mango<\/p>\n Albany has participated in downplaying or covering up failure, the report charges.<\/p>\n