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Janae Pierre: Welcome to NYC Now, your source for local news in and around New York City, from WNYC. It's Friday, October 3rd. Here's the Midday News from Verónica Del Valle.

Verónica Del Valle: Subway riders, make sure to load up your OMNY Card with money before tonight. MTA says the OMNY system will undergo some updates this weekend. That means passengers won't be able to buy physical OMNY Cards or reload them with more money. The agency also says tap payments won't immediately be processed during the system outage. Charges will go through once the system upgrades are complete. The outage will run from 10:00 tonight until 7:00 in the evening on Sunday. The MTA says these upgrades are necessary to continue phasing out MetroCards as the year goes on.

More in Subway News, "Your money is no good here." That's the message the MTA is sending to bus riders who pay the fare with coins. Starting next year, the agency will require all bus riders to pay with OMNY. They can use smartphones, credit cards, or a special army card that can be reloaded with cash at a subway vending machine or select retailers, but if you show up with a fistful of change, you'll be out of luck. 81-year-old Joanne Gianquinto says it's not fair for all good New Yorkers.

Joanne Gianquinto: My concern about the machine is, senior citizens probably save coins because we're so strapped for money, and they use their coins when they get on the bus. I see them.

Verónica Del Valle: The decision to get rid of the charge is part of the MTA's latest fare hike, which raises the cost of subway and bus rides to an even $3.

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Beautiful weather right now. 65, crisp and sunny. Today, it's still going to get a little warmer. A high of 72 degrees with some calm winds. Tonight, clear and colder. Lows around 59. Over the weekend, nice and warm during the days, sunny with a high around 81. Light wind and colder at night.

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Janae Pierre: Stick around. There's more to come.

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Michael Hill: On WNYC, I'm Michael Hill. An analysis by the education news site Chalkbeat says student enrollment in Newark Public Schools is way up and is changing the makeup of students in the district. This comes as districts across the USA are reporting a decline in student enrollment. With us now is the Newark reporter for Chalkbeat, Jessie Gómez. Jessie, enrollment is increasing, but by how much exactly? And how is that changing the makeup of students in Newark Public Schools?

Jessie Gómez: Newark Public Schools has experienced a nearly 20% increase in enrollment over the past five years. That's pretty rare because across the country, school districts are reporting a decline in students, and especially in Newark, we're seeing that there are more English language learners now, students with disabilities, and Hispanic students, who now represent the largest student group in the district.

Michael Hill: Do we know why there's an increase over the last several years?

Jessie Gómez: Well, experts that I spoke with said that the city has seen an influx of Hispanic residents in recent years, and there's been a pretty big growth in students who speak English as a second language, but whether those trends actually relate to Newark's enrollment boosts is still pretty unclear at the moment.

Michael Hill: How much is the pandemic still a factor in all, for this?

Jessie Gómez: After the pandemic, we did see school districts lose enrollment, and enrollment really dropped by a lot. That was a trend that experts say even started before the pandemic. In Newark, it seems to be the opposite trend. We're seeing post-pandemic an actual increase in students, but specifically, again, in Hispanic students, students with disabilities, and English language learners.

Michael Hill: You highlight in your article that Newark Public Schools enters its fifth year of local control this school year. How could that be impacting enrollment in student makeup?

Jessie Gómez: In the last five years, we've seen that Newark schools have shown a lot of progress. Back when the state took over Newark in 1995, state leaders had said that Newark was really at abysmal levels. Everything was down. In the last five years, we've seen graduation rates are up, chronic absenteeism has dropped, and of course, enrollment has grown, along with test scores improving pretty steadily.

Now, what's important here is, as enrollment grows, that also means that there are more needs of students. The district is responsible for setting up the proper systems to make sure all of its students have the right support that they need.

Michael Hill: It sounds like what you're saying, Jessie, is that there's a demand, of course, for more money because you have to educate more students. Where is that going to come from? Are they going to raise taxes? What's the plan for that?

Jessie Gómez: In New Jersey, the school funding formula is based on a couple of things, but it's heavily based on student enrollment. The more students a district like Newark gets, usually they'll get more funding. For a while now, Newark has been getting historically more funding year over year because of its enrollment growth. I think what is also at the question here is if there are more students with disabilities, students who require extra services, like English language learners, that also means that the district has an extra cost to not only educate its general population, but also its most vulnerable students. Of course, with more support means more money.

Michael Hill: In this particular case, with enrollment up and these improving statistics for the district, what impact is that having on school policy? Does it mean that they're meeting kids where they are, that they're educating kids? What does it mean?

Jessie Gómez: I think that is a very mixed question and depends on who is answering that question. Last week there was actually public hearing for a proposal to extend Superintendent Roger Leone's contract to 2030. That proposal failed because there was also a lot of pushback from the community at that meeting about a lot of issues in schools that they felt haven't been addressed since Superintendent Leone has been in office. I think it's really important when we talk about are things working, we really have to ask parents, students, and teachers what they think. A lot of folks that showed up at that meeting last week said that there were questions about how the district was responding to meeting all of their needs.

Michael Hill: Our guest has been Jessie Gómez, Newark reporter for the education news site Chalkbeat. Jessie, thank you.

Jessie Gómez: Thank you so much, Michael.

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Janae Pierre: Thanks for listening. This is NYC Now, from WNYC. Catch us every weekday, three times a day, for your top news headlines and occasional deep dives, and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. More soon.

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