The number of children entering New York City public schools gifted programs has dropped by half this year.

An elaborate $80 million system that was supposed to be ready in September has been unavailable, and 21 principals have turned to a program created at a Brooklyn high school to track progress.

More than 90,000 of New York City’s elementary school students — roughly 20 percent — missed at least a month of classes during the last school year.

It is all but certain that a debate to renew a state law giving the mayor of New York City control of its public schools will become a referendum on Michael Bloomberg.

The announcement that the school system must cut its budget has renewed a push to convince the teachers’ union to end the policy of keeping reserve teachers on the payroll.

Teachers and principals at five failed schools earned cash bonuses for their successes on standardized tests, which officials explained largely as a question of short-term versus long-term goals.

A report finds that New York City could pay teachers without permanent placements more than $74 million to be substitutes or replacements.

How could a red-hot school in Brooklyn Heights — with surging enrollment, with test scores that are above average, and with extras paid for by parents’ fund-raisers — be declared a failure?

What poor kids really need can’t be taught in a classroom.

Nearly a year after New York City’s first report cards for public schools were issued, the majority of the principals who ran the 52 schools labeled as failing remain in place.