Late yesterday afternoon, with little fanfare and zero public pronouncement, the DOE released its new capital plan for 2010-2014.

Remarkably lower-key than the splashy launch of the first capital plan, this pared-back version proposes $11 billion for 42 new schoolsto create 25,000 new seats. Nearly $4 billion is meant for new construction. A significant fraction of the 'new' seats are actually holdovers from the prior capital plan; 8,000 seats that were part of that expansive (and expensive) 76-school, 66,000 new-seats plan were never opened.

Construction will focus on already-overcrowded neighborhoods; critics say the plan vastly underestimates the number of seats that will be needed (read more here)and doesn't solve crowding problems created by high demand at well-regarded schools. City planners say that bitter reality sets its own ground rules: escalating construction costs and economic woes limit what the city and state can do.