10/4/2012
By Ivan Pereira
City Comptroller John Liu accused the city of not having enough college advisers and wasting money on frivolous educational pursuits.
Liu released a report on Thursday that found the average public school college adviser counsels 259 students a year. As a result, many students fall through the cracks and don’t go on to college after graduating, he said.
“How can anyone effectively do that job without being superhuman?” Liu asked.
The comptroller proposed the Department of Education invest $176 million of its $20-billion budget to expand the number of counselors by 1,600 and reduce their workload to 100 each.
Liu said the department already wasted millions on failed projects, including $133 million on unused pre-K classes and $80 million on a failed computer data system, and could easily budget the idea.
The DOE did not return calls for comment.
