Good morning. It’s Thursday. Today we’ll look at the affordability crisis and education. We’ll also get details on an effort to name a subway station for the patriarch of Zabar’s on the Upper West Side.
In an increasingly expensive city, many parents are on edge about where to enroll their children in school. There are public schools that prepare students to succeed, but students can be wait-listed — and parents often worry that the school closest to home won’t be challenging enough. When household budgets are tight, there can be little money for test prep, private tutoring or additional help for students to get ahead in the public school system. I asked Troy Closson, who covers education for the Metro desk, to discuss the role that money plays for a family looking for the right school. The income divide is widening, and even some higher-earning families are worried about their children’s prospects. How much do private schools cost? Tuition at some of the city’s top private schools is going to break $70,000 next year. It’s one of the many ways that the educational landscape in New York is changing. By way of comparison, the average New York City household earns about $77,000 a year. Catholic schools were historically a lower-cost private option. But more than 40 have closed in the past few years here, and others have raised the costs. But public schools that raise money ask for a lot. You wrote about one parent association that recommends that families donate $1,700 per child. That’s a lot if you’re on a tight budget. Most parent associations that raise money tell parents that donating is not a requirement — they can give whatever they can. But in the public school system, where there are so many options, money can still shape families’ experiences. There are many middle-class families who hire admissions consultants to help them navigate the admissions system here. That might be unusual in other cities, but for many it feels like a necessity when the process is so complicated and opaque. What does an admissions consultant cost? It depends. If you want one session for an hour, that can run a few hundred dollars. If you want more in-depth help through the entire admissions season, that might be a few thousand. A consultant who has long experience with families navigating the school system can feel like a lifeline. Families applying to high schools in New York City have more than 500 public-school options, and there’s popular free Facebook pages where parents share tips. But as the economic divide grows, it does raise a question of whether access to assistance and information about schools in this complex city could grow more limited. What about parochial schools? And what about financial aid at private schools? Many parochial schools are trying to keep their costs down, but some of them have said that has become tougher in the last few years. And when you look at private schools, they’re seeing more families who make $250,000 a year — who, a decade ago, wouldn’t have applied for financial aid — fill out applications now. What about charter schools? Charter schools are a popular option for 150,000 students, including many low-income Black and Latino children, but their numbers are also limited. Mayor Zohran Mamdani is opposed to charter school expansion, and charter school leaders have begun to frame that debate around affordability. They’ve challenged Mamdani, arguing that a high-performing, free sector for working families is exactly what he should support. Mayor Mamdani has also talked about wanting to phase out selecting children for gifted-and-talented programs in kindergarten. He hasn’t detailed what the alternative approach to advanced education would be. What he decides will also shape the debate around whether families feel like they have access to high-quality schools. There’s also a larger, longer-term issue. How do schools figure in who lives here? Affordability — the cost of housing and the cost of child care are often the top factors that push families out of New York City. Wealthier families who don’t feel they can get into a top, top private school may move to the suburbs. Low-income families may end up on a wait list for the charter school they want to get into. If they don’t have feasible public school options, they might begin to consider moving somewhere that is more affordable. I think it reflects the urgency of improving the quality of public education across the city so that fewer families are dealing with these kinds of impossible situations. WEATHER Today will be mostly sunny, with a high near 44. Temperatures will drop near 38 tonight, with mostly cloudy skies. ALTERNATE-SIDE PARKING In effect until Friday (Eid al-Fitr). QUOTE OF THE DAY “Our job is to make sure that everybody who’s eligible stays eligible, that they receive those supports in a timely manner and that we help to support their trajectory.” — Erin Dalton, the new commissioner of the city’s Department of Social Services. With a budget of $18 billion, the agency manages benefits like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, as well as homeless services. The latest New York news
We hope you’ve enjoyed this newsletter, which is made possible through subscriber support. Subscribe to The New York Times. Should a subway station be named after a Zabar?
In almost 20 years in the State Legislature, Assemblywoman Linda Rosenthal has sponsored bills with important consequences, like one that let victims of childhood sexual abuse file claims decades later. Bill No. A09236 would rename a subway station — the 79th Street station on the No. 1 line. Rosenthal wants the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which runs the subways, to change the name to the “79th Street-Saul Zabar Station” as a tribute to the man who turned his family’s delicatessen into a New York institution. The store, Zabar’s, is a block from the station. Zabar died last October at 97. “Most of what we do” in the Legislature “is very high-level impact,” Rosenthal said, “but this particular bill is very local, with profound meaning to the Upper West Side community.” Janno Lieber, the chief executive of the M.T.A., noted a few days after Zabar’s death that he had been called “the lord of lox.” “But I think that undersells it,” Lieber said before recounting the ways in which Zabar had expanded Zabar’s as the food revolution gained momentum starting in the 1960s. “He was also the prince of pastrami, the baron of Brie and the count of coffee. And in deference to diversification, also the king of Cuisinarts.” Lieber was speaking at a ceremony to unveil a poster of Zabar in the 79th Street station a few days after Zabar’s death. Rosenthal, who attended that ceremony, said that co-naming the station was something “we do this for people who contributed a lot to the ethos of the city and made a mark on the city.” John McCarthy, the M.T.A. executive in charge of policy, said that only a few stations had been renamed. “Our position on this is we are generally opposed to renaming stations unless there is a purpose that helps customers with navigation or the place they are going,” he said. One recent renaming involved the 23rd Street station on the Lexington Avenue line, which became the 23rd Street-Baruch College station, he said. Another renamed the Christopher Street station on the No. 1 line the Christopher Street-Stonewall station because the Stonewall National Monument is nearby. And Zabar? “I think the appropriate way is how can we honor the person with a plaque,” McCarthy said, “just because of the volume of people who want to honor the many New Yorkers of significance in all neighborhoods. We would wind up renaming all our stations, once, twice, three times.” METROPOLITAN DIARY Some Wallet
Dear Diary: I had a great day at the beach at Fort Tilden on Labor Day, but when it was over, I couldn’t find my wallet. I looked everywhere, but it was gone. A few hours later, I got an Instagram message from a stranger who lived on the same Bed-Stuy block as me and had found my wallet floating in the ocean! — Gabe Fowler Illustrated by Agnes Lee. Tell us your New York story here and read more Metropolitan Diary here.
Glad we could get together here. See you tomorrow. — J.B. Davaughnia Wilson and Ed Shanahan contributed to New York Today. You can reach the team at nytoday@nytimes.com. |
