Kids Return to Revamped School System

New York City kids returned today to a school system with newly empowered principals and a leaner bureaucracy. New rules gave 321 principals, more than a fifth system-wide, greater control over their budgets, staffs, and curriculums in exchange for greater accountability – those that miss performance goals could face dismissal. Education officials in recent months fired hundreds of bureaucrats to conserve money. Forty-nine new schools opened this fall.—Mike McPhate