Education in New York City is provided by a vast number of public and private institutions. New York City has the largest educational system of any city in the world. The city's educational infrastructure spans primary education, secondary education, higher education, and research. New York City is home to some of the most important libraries, universities, and research centers in the world. In 2006, New York had the most post-graduate life sciences degrees awarded annually in the United States, 40,000 licensed physicians, and 127 Nobel laureates with roots in local institutions. The city receives the second-highest amount of annual funding from the National Institutes of Health among all U.S. cities. It also struggles with disparity in its public school system, with some of the best-performing public schools in the United States as well as some of the worst-performing. Under Mayor Michael Bloomberg, the city embarked on a major school reform effort.
New York City has many nationally important independent universities and colleges, such as Barnard College, Columbia University, Cooper Union, Cornell Tech, Fordham University, Long Island University, Manhattan University, New York Institute of Technology, New York University, Pace University, Pratt Institute, St. John's University, The New School, Vaughn College of Aeronautics and Technology, and Yeshiva University. The city has dozens of other private colleges and universities, including many religious and special-purpose institutions, such as St. Francis College, The Juilliard School and The School of Visual Arts.
New York City's public school system, operated by the New York City Department of Education, is the largest in the world. More than 1.1 million students are taught in more than 1,700 public schools with a budget of nearly $25 billion. It contains several selective specialized schools, such as Stuyvesant High School, The Bronx High School of Science, and Brooklyn Technical High School. There are several charter schools that operate in the city, such as Success Academy Charter Schools and Public Prep. There are also approximately 900 additional privately run secular and religious schools in the city.
The New York Public Library, which has the largest collection of any public library system in the country, serves Manhattan, the Bronx, and Staten Island. It has several research libraries including the Main Branch and the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. Queens is served by the Queens Borough Public Library, the nation's second largest public library system, while Brooklyn Public Library serves Brooklyn.
New York City is also home to hundreds of cultural institutions and historic sites, many of which are internationally known. It is widely regarded a center of scientific research, particularly in medicine and the life sciences. The city has 15 nationally leading academic medical research institutions and medical centers. History
Higher education
There are about 594,000 university students in New York City attending around 110 universities and colleges. New York State is the nation's largest importer of college students; statistics show that among freshmen who leave their home states to attend college, more come to New York State than any other state, including California. Enrollment in New York State is led by New York City, which is home to more university students than any other city in the United States. , students in the state had more post-graduate life sciences degrees awarded annually than any other state. There were 40,000 licensed physicians as well as 127 Nobel laureates with roots in local institutions. The city gets more annual funding from National Institutes of Health than all other U.S. cities except Boston. Additionally, the higher education sector is also a vital contributor to the city's economy, employing 110,000 people in 2007 and accounting for nearly 2.5 percent of overall employment in New York.
Public higher education is provided by the many campuses of the City University of New York (CUNY) and the State University of New York (SUNY). CUNY is built around the City College of New York, whose own history dates back to the formation of the Free Academy in 1847. Much of CUNY's student body, which represent 197 countries, consists of new immigrants to New York City. CUNY has campuses in all of the five boroughs, with 11 four-year colleges, 7 two-year colleges, a law school, a graduate school, a medical school, an honors college, a public health school, professional studies school, and a journalism school. A third of college graduates in New York City are CUNY graduates, with the institution enrolling about half of all college students in New York City. The City University's alumni include Jonas Salk, Colin Powell, Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel.
Columbia University, an Ivy League university founded in 1754 and currently located in Morningside Heights, Manhattan, is the fifth oldest institution of higher learning in the United States. Barnard College is an independent women's college, one of the original Seven Sisters, affiliated with Columbia. Through a reciprocal agreement, Barnard and Columbia students share classes, housing, and extracurricular activities, and Barnard graduates receive the degree of the university.Reception honors anniversary of CC coeducation | Columbia Daily Spectator. Columbiaspectator.com. Retrieved on September 7, 2013.
Cornell University, New York's other Ivy League university, also maintains a substantial presence in Manhattan. While Cornell's main campus is located in Ithaca, New York, the university's technology campus, Cornell Tech, opened in 2017 on Roosevelt Island. Weill Cornell Medicine, Cornell University's medical school, is located on the Upper East Side of Manhattan.
New York University (NYU) is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in Greenwich Village, Manhattan, but it has campus buildings around the city and campuses and global "academic centers" worldwide. Founded in 1831, NYU is one of the largest private, nonprofit institutions of higher education in the United States.
The New York Institute of Technology, or New York Tech, is a private, not-for-profit, accredited, doctoral and research university that was founded in 1955. The university has several locations, including the main campuses in Long Island and New York City, and other campuses in Jonesboro, Arkansas, and Vancouver, Canada.
The New School, located mostly in Greenwich Village, is a private multidisciplinary university housing eight specialized colleges, including the internationally recognized art school, Parsons The New School for Design. Founded in 1919 as The New School for Social Research, the university established itself as a modern free school where adult students could "seek an unbiased understanding of the existing order, its genesis, growth and present working"."Research School to Open". The New York Times (September 30, 1919).
Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, located in Manhattan's Cooper Square, was founded in 1859 by Peter Cooper to provide education in engineering, architecture, and the fine arts. The Cooper Union was made tuition-free so that the school would be "open and free to all",Mead, Edwin Doak (ed.) The Old South Leaflets Old South Meeting House, 1903. p. 465 and that all qualifying students could get an education "equal to the best technology schools established" at the time. independent of their race, religion, sex, wealth or social status. For 155 years until 2014, Cooper Union admitted students based on merit alone and provided each with a full-tuition scholarship.
Three of the United States' leading Roman Catholic colleges are in New York City. The Jesuit-associated Fordham University, with campuses in Manhattan and the Bronx, was the first Catholic university in the Northeast, founded in 1841.Schroth, SJ, Raymond. Fordham: A History and Memoir. Revised ed. New York: Fordham UP, 2008. Print. St. John's University was founded by the Vincentian Fathers in 1870Stiles, Henry R., History of Kings County, vol. 2, p. 955 and now has campuses in Queens, Manhattan, and Staten Island, with over 20,000 graduate and undergraduate students. It is also a founding member of the Division I Big East Conference. Manhattan University, founded in 1853 by the De La Salle Brothers, is located in the Bronx's Riverdale neighborhood and offers students a liberal arts education, Division I athletics, and graduate degree options in Business, Education, and Engineering.
Other notable universities include Yeshiva University in Washington Heights, a Jewish university rooted in America's oldest Yeshiva, founded in 1886. One of the nation's most prestigious conservatories, The Juilliard School, is located on the Upper West Side. New York Law School, a private law school in lower Manhattan, is one of the oldest independent law schools in the United States. The New York Academy of Sciences is one of the oldest scientific societies in the United States, comprising some 20,000 scientists of all disciplines from 150 countries.
Primary and secondary education
Public schools
The New York City public school system is the largest in the United States. More than 1.1 million students are taught in more than 1,700 public schools with a budget of nearly $25 billion. The public school system is managed by the New York City Department of Education. It includes Empowerment Schools.
According to Census Data, NYC spent $19,076 each year per student in 2013, more than any other state compared to the national average of $10,560. Per student spending has continued to increase.
Among New York City public high schools are nine selective specialized high schools: Brooklyn Latin School, Bronx High School of Science, Brooklyn Technical High School, Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School, the High School of American Studies at Lehman College, the High School for Math, Science and Engineering at City College, Queens High School for the Sciences, Stuyvesant High School, and Staten Island Technical High School. The Specialized High Schools Admissions Test (SHSAT) examination is required for admission to all the schools except LaGuardia, which requires an audition or portfolio for admission. Other selective high schools include Hunter College High School, a public school run by CUNY.
A small portion of land between the town of Pelham and Pelham Bay Park, with a total of 35 houses, is a part of the Bronx, but is cut off from the rest of the borough due to the way the county boundaries were established. Since 1948, the New York City government has paid for the residents' children to attend Pelham Union Free School District schools, since that is cheaper than sending school buses to take the students to New York City schools.
School funding lawsuit A constitutional challenge to the New York State school funding system was filed in 1993 by the Campaign for Fiscal Equity. The lawsuit, Campaign for Fiscal Equity, Inc. (CFE) v. State of New York (also known as CFE v. State of New York), claims that the state's school finance system under-funds New York City public schools and denies its students their constitutional right to a sound basic education.
The Court of Appeals, New York's highest court, ruled in 1996 that the New York State constitution requires that the state offer all children the opportunity for a "sound basic education". In 2001, State Supreme Court Justice Leland DeGrasse found that the current state school funding system was unconstitutional. Governor George Pataki appealed the decision, which was overturned in 2002 by the Appellate Division. CFE appealed to the New York Court of Appeals, which again found in favor of CFE in 2003. The Court of Appeals gave the State of New York until July 30, 2004 to comply with its order.