Viewsday

The No. 1 issue on the minds of likely voters in New York City’s upcoming elections is not the stop-and-frisk imbroglio. It’s not the tough, elusive struggle for better outcomes in programs for the homeless and mentally ill. It’s not the shockingly sorry status of more than a few city parks. It is education, said a speaker at a Manhattan Institute forum this morning, citing a recent Zogby poll the...

Students across the country found out what they received on their Advanced Placement tests on Friday. I’m one of them, and like so many of my contemporaries, I was eager to see all my hard work boiled down into one number grade. Everyone’s hoping to get that great feeling that comes from earning a 4 or 5 on an exam.

But is taking an AP class really worth all the time and effort?

Other...

For tomorrow's Newsday, the editorial page is taking a closer look at reports about Long Island school district contracts with a Bellport data-systems company that advertised it could help maximize their "yes" vote during budget elections. It's not clear whether any school districts ever used this premium service from Bold Systems. But if they did, that's a problem. Spending tax money...

How gun-saturated is this country today?

Let’s start with the story of the 7-year-old boy who police say brought a .22-caliber semiautomatic pistol into Wave Preparatory School in Far Rockaway, Queens, on Thursday. Along with the gun, the second-grader had a separate magazine loaded with 10 bullets in his backpack and 7 to 10 additional rounds in a plastic bag, according to police.

There...

So why are the 8,800 school bus drivers of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1811 planning to strike on Wednesday morning?

If you watch the union’s television ads, you might think it’s because New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg would rather pinch pennies than invest in the safety of children by giving the drivers more job security. 

“This is about safety and experience,” says Local...

MISINFORMATION: SETTING THE RECORD STRAIGHT

A recent letter to the editor criticized President Barack Obama for his "skepticism" about the National Rifle Association's "proposal to put armed guards in schools," following the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

The writer claimed there is a precedent -- hailing from Obama's very own Democratic Party. President...

How bad is the recent recommendation to put armed guards in Staten Island’s schools? It’s so bad that even professional right-wing shock merchant Ann Coulter has her doubts about the underlying principles.  In an otherwise scathing attack on liberals and the notion of gun control, she allowed in a conversation with Fox News’ Sean Hannity that the NRA's call for an armed guard in each school...

It was the most ambitious speech of Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s life, in every imaginable way.

Sure, there was the obvious stuff: making New York the jobs capital of the Milky Way galaxy, turning around the 60-year decline of the upstate region, not raising taxes under any circumstances ever, seriously, and making school longer and better.

There was the tough stuff, like raising the minimum...

The National Rifle Association ended four days of silence today, releasing its first statement since the school shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

The NRA shut down its Facebook and Twitter pages after the shootings, leaving many wondering how it would respond to the killings. In its statment, the group says that its members were "shocked, saddened and heartbroken by the news of...

NEWTOWN, Conn. -- Barry and Cheryl Ogowetsky brought a bouquet of flowers to a makeshift memorial outside Newtown High School.

It was a small gesture like so many others here in recent days.

Thousands of people trekked to this picturesque New England town on Sunday to pay respects and mourn with a community that is struggling in the aftermath of the mass killings of 20 children and six...