Mayor Bloomberg came out strongly against a proposed 8% hotel tax, saying that tourism was NYC's proverbial golden goose and that taxing it to death would be the wrong move. The additional tourist tax was proposed in the City Council by members who are trying to figure out how to avoid slashing $450 million from the Dept. of Education's budget next year. Bloomberg pointed out that with rising fuel costs and a slowing economy, tourism......

The principal of a charter school located within the building that also houses the Dept. of Education has stepped down amid accusations that she was doctoring standardized test scores. The Sun reports that Stephanie Clagnaz left the Ross Global Academy last month after a teacher alleged she saw the principal of the school taking ungraded math exams home with her. Regulations require that the exams remain physically secured on school grounds until they are graded......

Barack Obama's campaign organization is in hot water with Joel Klein, the NYC School's Chancellor, after it produced a short film (it runs about 13 minutes) starring Bronx public high school students and teachers discussing race issues and Obama's campaign. The video was distributed online to generate revenue for the candidate's campaign and the page where the video is located features a prominent "DONATE NOW" button. The teacher prominently featured in the film is......

Screen grab of employee web tracking software A Manhattan court upheld the firing of city employee Toquir Choudhri for doing too much Web browsing on the City's time. Choudri, who was an education analyst for the Department of Education's Human Resources department, was fired in 2006 for spending far too much time online. He had been formally warned to knock of his Web-wandering ways, but an internal audit showed that despite the warning, Choudri......