GothamSchools — daily independent reporting on NYC public schools

• New findings about a preschool program that’s coming to New York City are promising. (Catalyst)
• A call to stop talking about preschool as “paying for itself,” because it’s worth spending on. (Sara Mead)
• Expanded access to pre-kindergarten doesn’t just help students: It helps their parents, too. (Jezebel)
• We’ve got the grammar police — they’re a powerful force. Where are the math police? (On Innovation)
• For Valentine’s Day, a love story about teachers and students who care about each other. (Jose Vilson)
• “Blackboard Wars,” a new TV series about a New Orleans charter school, starts this weekend. (Russo)
• One statistic that could be useful when discussing teachers is that there are 4 million of them. (Eduwonk)

The city’s $46.6 billion teacher pension system sold its shares in the firearms industry yesterday, becoming the country’s largest retirement fund to divest from publicly-traded gun manufacturers since December’s elementary school shooting in Newtown, Conn., Comptroller John Liu announced today.

But the vote to do so wasn’t unanimous — and the single dissenting ballot came from a member appointed by the city’s most powerful gun control advocate: Mayor Bloomberg.

Ray Sarola, acting as a fill-in for Bloomberg appointee Carolyn Wolpert, voted against divestment during an executive session meeting last week, a spokesman for the Teacher Retirement System said. Deputy Chancellor Kathleen Grimm, of the Department of Education, missed the vote but said yesterday at the board’s monthly public meeting that she opposed divestment as well. (more…)

Months of tortuous and torturous commutes could end as soon as next week for the tens of thousands of students whose school bus drivers have been on strike for the last month.

Five mayoral candidates who have supported the drivers’ demands for seniority protections in city contracts have asked the Amalgamated Transit Union to end the strike, and the union’s national and local leaders have said they are considering the request. The leaders are scheduled to address members during a conference call tonight.

Reports the New York Times:

A decision to return to work would represent a major victory for Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, who had begun to strip the employee protections in contracts that the city signed with the private companies who run the buses. … (more…)

• Parents are having a tough time using the city’s car service vouchers during the school bus strike. (NY1)
• Gunfire outside of a Bedford-Stuyvesant school building has forced frequent lockdowns recently. (News)
• The number of students that police arrested in city schools dropped by nearly half late last year. (Post)
• In his last State of the City, Bloomberg said he plans to open new schools. (GothamSchools, News)
• Juan Gonzalez: Bloomberg did not mention all of the policies have damaged city schools. (Daily News)
• A teacher evaluations advocate says the state should step in for any district that wavers. (Daily News)
• A parent who refused vaccines for her daughter is suing because she was barred from school. (Post)
• Supporters at a high school facing overhaul for a third time say it is finally improving. (GothamSchools)
• President Obama’s preschool plan would be primarily targeted at low-income 4-year-olds. (AP, HuffPo)
• The plan drew skepticism over the federal government’s role in early childhood education. (WSJ, Times)
• David Brooks: Obama’s pre-K plan is promising because it will rely on state experimentation. (Times)