Last week, at the same time Chancellor Klein started his "classic divide and conquer" campaign to cut the budgets of high-performing schools, he also announced that he would be cutting $200 million from the DOE's central budget. We're starting to get a picture now of what programs and services will go the way of the $200 million. Helen reported that top schools will not receive annual quality reviews and that dozens of jobs will be cut centrally.

Today, we learn that the DOE is jettisoning its plan to screen all kindergarteners for "giftedness" this coming year. The plan has drawn mixed reception since it was announced last year as part of the standardization of G&T admission: anti-testing advocates opposed it as an expansion of the DOE's already swollen testing program, while others, including some parents who commented on this blog while waiting for their G&T letters, saw it as a way to increase equity by finding gifted kids whose parents might not know to ask for testing.

What else do we know the DOE plans to cut from its central administration? Is the chancellor right that individual schools won't suffer more because of the cuts there?