Appearing to fall into the "nothing-new-here" category, the New York Daily News is reporting that New York City can?t find qualified science teachers. What makes this perennial problem so egregious in this instance is that the Big Apple can't even staff its specialized science schools. The School for Health and Biomedical Sciences in Brooklyn has spent the first few weeks of this school year without any qualified science teachers. As 12-year-old Kaitlin Silva bemoaned, ?I joined this school to learn about the body and all different kinds of stuff. The first year was great, and there were after-school clubs that dealt with science. But there isn?t any of that this year.?

Some Bloomberg critics are arguing that the shortage is due to misplaced priorities. ?With the mayor and chancellor?s laser focus on reading and math, science is getting squeezed out of schools,? says Clara Hemphill of Insideschools.org. Probably more on target is the observation by Elizabeth Aron, CEO of human resources for the city?s Ed Department. ?Statewide, colleges only produce about 500 science teachers a year. New York City alone could use double that.?