Today Daily News columnist Juan Gonzalez challenged Mayor Bloomberg's proclamation that the city will open 23 new school buildings, creating 13,000 new seats for students.

Gonzalez says that some of the buildings touted as "newly-constructed" were, in fact, only renovated. More shocking still is that three of the "new" facilities are actually just rentals -- two of which have staggering price tags attached. Over the next 20 years, a lease on the Bronx building set to house  Jonas Bronck Academy will set the city back $40 million -- on top of the $11.5 million already spent on renovations. For the new Urban Assembly School of Business for Young Women, the city will shell out $191 million for space in a Financial District office building.

The DOE says their designation of "new construction" can be applied to any school that's creating new seats, but Gonzalez doesn't believe the total of new seats created is accurate, either. He points to the case of two Bronx high schools, which are moving from temporary trailers into a renovated building, meaning "no actual new seats will result," as the trailers are being taken down.<!--more-->

Gonzalez's criticism comes on the heels of Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer's report that the DOE's Capital Plan uses flawed methodology to forecast enrollment in the city's schools. Stringer's third report on school overcrowding says that the Capital Plan predicts a decline in the school-age population, even though 50,000 new housing units will spring up across Manhattan in the coming years.

According to the report, the DOE's outside consultants estimate that Manhattan will have between 2,700 and 5,000 fewer elementary and middle school students by 2016. Those numbers conflict with the city's own Department of City Planning, which predicts an enrollment increase of over 8,000 students.Stringer fears the Capital Plan will leave the city with a shortfall of up to 13,000 seats. He demands that the DOE be held accountable for its "erroneous" projections, and proposes the DOE submit to oversight and input from other city agencies, including the offices of the borough presidents, city comptroller, public advocate, and the School Construction Authority. He also wants the DOE to revise its formula for calculating school overcrowding to include students in trailers and annexes in student enrollment totals, as well as "to account for the need to provide cluster space and reduce class size."The Daily News reports that the DOE said Stringer's math is wrong, not theirs. But with this spring's"Kindergarten Krisis" fresh on the minds of Manhattan parents, we bet they'll be counting on their borough president.