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By the end of this school year, the Department of Education will have spent more than $300 million on its accountability initiative, according to a report released today by the city’s Independent Budget Office.

The DOE disputes the IBO’s figure, saying the report includes more initiatives than are actually part of the accountability project. It says the true figure is more like $100 million.

The city’s public advocate, Betsy Gotbaum, commissioned the report, which is bound to intensify debate about whether accountability measures should be cut during the coming budget crunch. (more…)

Randi Weingarten, the president of the teachers union, and Betsy Gotbaum, the public advocate, are usually hard on Mayor Bloomberg when it comes to education budget cuts. But because the majority of school cuts announced today will come from the Department of Education’s central bureaucracy, not individual schools, they have both issued cautiously optimistic responses to today’s budget announcement.

Weingarten’s and Gotbaum’s full responses after the jump.

UPDATE: Maybe this will turn out to be a budget fight. The principals’ union president, Ernest Logan, just came out with a statement, and it’s more confrontational than Weingarten’s. Weingarten said she is looking forward to working with the mayor; Logan says firmly that he opposes a mid-year cut. “Forcing another mid-year cut will hinder the progress we have made thus far,” he said. And he adds: “Let’s be clear – CSA is committed to standing up for the children of this city and will continue to fight for what’s right.” (more…)

The city’s public advocate, who today announced via a New York Times article that she will not seek reelection, despite the term limit extension, is arguing for mandated sex education in all city high schools. Betsy Gotbaum’s recommendation follows a study by her office that found problems with city-run clinics on sexually transmitted diseases.

One particularly disturbing finding: Only one of 10 clinics the office studied made rapid HIV tests available, according to the report, which is here (PDF).

Following on Randi’s heels, the city’s public advocate, Betsy Gotbaum, has a statement out on the New School report that found 20% of elementary school students missed at least a month of school last year.

Gotbaum’s take is that the problem stems from a lack of “institutional support” from the Department of Education, which is failing to support principals who want to increase attendance but don’t have the resources to do it.

The full statement:

The DOE plays hooky when it comes to a strong absenteeism policy. They are placing the blame on principals, but I go to schools all over the city, and I see principals who are trying hard to address the problem head-on. They want to lower the absenteeism rates at their schools, but they can’t do it without institutional support from the DOE. The DOE must do more to increase attendance monitors in high-need communities and provide resources and logistical support to help schools deal with language barriers when trying to reach parents and students at non-English speaking homes. And more should be done to help principals find creative solutions like working with CBOs that know the community and expanding school-based health care, so kids aren’t missing full days of school for a doctor visit.

Between city- and state-mandated assessments, New York’s 3rd and 4th graders average a standardized test every 13 school days, and 8th graders every 14 school days, says Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum. And that doesn’t include teacher-designed tests and quizzes used to guide instruction and compute report card grades, or non-mandated practice tests given by science and social studies teachers to prepare students for standardized tests in those subject areas. With all this testing, when do teaching and learning occur?

Betsy Gotbaum

The long-awaited report of Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum’s Commission on School Governance was released this morning, and previews in the Sun and Times reveal that the panel of experts has concluded that mayoral control should survive — but with some improvements. More specifically, the papers report, the commission suggests enhancing parent input in DOE decision-making, giving the city more financial oversight of the DOE, and changing the Panel for Educational Policy so that members serve fixed terms, rather than at the pleasure of the mayor.

We’ll have more on the commission’s report later, but for now, check out Gotbaum’s new blog, Public Advocate’s Corner, which launched earlier this week. Gotbaum’s office promises extensive coverage of education issues, and already, the blog has tackled the effect of overcrowding on one Queens school, laid out questions for the DOE at the start of a new school year, and probed “the problem with District Family Advocates.” Continue to check in at the blog for an informed, critical look at the schools and other city services.