NYC: "Staggering" 95% of residents say schools need "to shape up math and reading scores"

Aug 8, 2026, NYPost: NYC's schools get failing grade with fed up New Yorkers: poll

New Yorkers can’t agree on anything — except for their disgust with the city’s high-spending, dismal-performing public school system.

A staggering 95 percent of Gothamites say city schools need to shape up their math and reading scores and/or spend less money, according to a damning new poll by good government nonprofit think tank The Empire Center .

Only 3 percent of Big Apple residents approved of the job New York Public Schools is doing and said it should continue as is, according to the survey.

 “I have never seen such a broad condemnation of business as usual,” Empire Center President Zilvinas Silenas told The Post.

A whopping 91 percent of respondents said that the DOE needs to improve reading and math scores as the city struggles with an illiteracy and innumeracy crisis.