{"id":5046,"date":"2026-06-06T16:26:01","date_gmt":"2026-06-06T13:26:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/nycs-failing-43b-schools-need-some-tough-texas-tutoring\/"},"modified":"2026-06-06T16:26:01","modified_gmt":"2026-06-06T13:26:01","slug":"nycs-failing-43b-schools-need-some-tough-texas-tutoring","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/nycs-failing-43b-schools-need-some-tough-texas-tutoring\/","title":{"rendered":"NYC’s failing $43B schools need some tough Texas tutoring"},"content":{"rendered":"

While New York City continues to hemorrhage over $44,000 per student annually with dismal results to show for it, a dramatic turnaround in Houston is proving that money isn’t the problem\u2014leadership is.<\/strong><\/p>\n

According to New York Post<\/em>, the contrast between America’s two largest urban school districts could not be more stark, and it exposes a fundamental truth that progressive educators refuse to acknowledge: throwing taxpayer dollars at failing schools changes nothing without accountability and standards.<\/p>\n

New York City’s public education system has become such a cautionary tale that even Amazon founder Jeff Bezos<\/strong> recently mocked its dysfunction, comparing it to a delivery system where packages would take six weeks, cost $100, and arrive with the wrong contents.<\/p>\n

The numbers tell a brutal story. Despite spending roughly $43 billion yearly to educate approximately 850,000 students\u2014more than $44,000 per child\u2014two-thirds of fourth graders cannot perform math at grade level, and nearly three-quarters fail to read proficiently.<\/p>\n

Student assaults are climbing even as suspensions drop, and the U.S. Department of Education has launched a civil rights investigation following reports of discrimination against Jewish students within city schools.<\/p>\n

Houston Shows Another Way<\/h2>\n

Meanwhile in Houston, just two years after Texas Governor Greg Abbott<\/strong>‘s administration took control of the chronically failing Houston Independent School District in 2023, academic gains have made the district the envy of urban education systems nationwide.<\/p>\n

The state intervention followed years of persistent academic failure, including high schools that repeatedly failed to meet minimum standards. Progressive groups, including the Texas chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, immediately condemned what they called a racially motivated takeover of a district serving a 90 percent Black and Hispanic student population.<\/p>\n

The results, however, have silenced critics.<\/p>\n

According to HISD’s latest academic report, the number of A- and B-rated campuses more than doubled from 93 schools before the takeover to 197 today. Schools rated D or F plummeted from 121 to just 18, with zero F-rated campuses remaining in the entire district.<\/p>\n

Reading scores on Texas’s STAAR standardized test surged nearly 14 percent districtwide, with Black and Hispanic students posting gains exceeding 15 percent. Economically disadvantaged students and emergent bilingual learners also achieved double-digit improvements.<\/p>\n

Math achievement climbed similarly, with minority and low-income students showing meaningful progress. Houston students are now closing achievement gaps with the rest of Texas that had previously seemed permanent.<\/p>\n

Back to Basics<\/h2>\n

The transformation required no massive funding increase or trendy new curriculum. Instead, HISD leadership focused on instruction, accountability, and execution through what the district calls the New Education System.<\/p>\n

The NES model emphasizes direct instruction, extended reading and math blocks, daily assessments, and longer school days. Initially implemented in 85 low-performing campuses, the program proved so effective that more than half of the district’s 274 principals have voluntarily adopted it.<\/p>\n

Teachers received training on standards-aligned instructional materials rather than being left to develop their own approaches. Performance measurements became rigorous, hiring standards were raised, and teacher compensation shifted toward rewarding effectiveness over mere seniority.<\/p>\n

Perhaps most remarkably, HISD eliminated approximately 1,300 central office positions, cutting roughly $500 million from its budget by reducing administrative bloat.<\/p>\n

The Houston model demonstrates what happens when adults prioritize student achievement over institutional interests and political posturing. New York City spends nearly triple the national average per student while producing some of the worst outcomes in the country, proving once again that without accountability and standards, increased funding only feeds a broken system.<\/p>\n

With information from New York Post<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Houston’s dramatic academic turnaround under state control contrasts sharply with New York City’s failing schools, which spend over $44,000 per student annually with dismal results.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":47,"featured_media":5045,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[122],"tags":[5523,5521,2448,5522,5524,1831,209],"nfg_topic":[137],"class_list":["post-5046","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-education-spending","tag-houston","tag-new-york-city","tag-public-schools","tag-student-performance","tag-texas","tag-united-states","nfg_topic-culture-wars"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5046","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/47"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5046"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5046\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5045"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5046"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5046"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5046"},{"taxonomy":"nfg_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/nfg_topic?post=5046"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}