With no deal on teacher evaluations, Mayor Michael Bloomberg presented a new budget that eliminates 2500 teaching positions, after school programs, books and other classroom supplies.

Mayor Bloomberg took his arguments against short-term teacher evaluation deals on the road, telling Albany lawmakers that other school districts were willing to make one- or two-year deals because “everybody else is just interested in getting the money and committing what I would call fraud.” He expected New York City principals to eliminate teachers and other staff positions if more state money is withheld.

About 87 schools in New York City are caught in a squeeze where more than half of their students — but fewer than 60 percent — are considered poor, putting them just shy of qualification for federal Title 1 money. Like P.S. 9 in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn, 32 other schools in the next two years will be scrambling to deal with a loss of Title 1 money for services like teachers, aides, literacy programs and basic supplies.

When SchoolBook asked parents to tell us how much they spend on their child’s public school education, many wrote in to say they felt “nickeled and dimed.” One mother said she resented being asked to bridge the gap between the city’s “spartan budget” and her own wishes for her children. Others railed against the inequities so much reliance on parent money is causing in a system where so many students live at or below the poverty level. The latest in a series on the rising cost of public school.

After losing roughly 5,300 public school teachers to budget cuts over the last several years and watching class sizes rise, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg announced on Thursday that he plans to reverse course by providing money to hire more teachers.

The city wanted to fire a Washington Heights music teacher, Michael Dalton, for inappropriately holding three third-grade boys in his lap, The Times reports. But then Mr. Dalton, 48, presented a novel — and successful — defense: a photo of Joel I. Klein, the schools chancellor at the time, who also appeared to have children sitting in his lap. An arbitrator returned him to the classroom.

After years of painful cuts and threats of teacher layoffs, city officials on Tuesday laid out a decidedly more optimistic portrait of financing for city schools next year, saying they expected that principals would have enough money in their budgets to retain most of their teachers and other school employees.

Even as the United States Department of Agriculture says it will begin offering schools alternatives to products that contain so-called “pink slime,” an ammonia-based filler for ground beef, parents are pressing school districts around the country to stop serving the products now — and some school districts are responding, The New York Times reported this weekend.

Parents who are responding to a SchoolBook survey are ticking off their expenses: Overnight trips. After-school programs. School photos. And of course glue sticks and disinfecting wipes. To top it all off, many parents say, they are being asked for a “suggested” contribution to the school fund or to the PTA, or a donation to the school fund-raiser, which can run into thousands of dollars. What are you paying for? Respond to our survey.

An after-school program started under Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg in 2005 is facing a budget cut of more than 20 percent, which some people say could cut nearly in half the number of seats for children next year. A reduction in city financing is coming even as costs for each child are going up.