Progressive NYC Private School Fighting Foreclosure Files Bankruptcy
(Bloomberg) -- Manhattan Country School, an Upper West Side private school promoting social justice and a progressive academic curriculum that is battling possible foreclosure, has filed bankruptcy.
MCS sought court protection Friday listing assets and liabilities of between $10 million and $50 million each on its Chapter 11 petition. The school, which operates on a sliding-scale tuition model based on families' ability to pay, has said it suffered losses during the Covid-19 pandemic from helping impacted parents by reducing prices. The maximum annual tuition is $59,000.
Parents have been worrying about MCS' finances and future since October's foreclosure action by Flushing Bank. Filing Chapter 11 halts that effort and other collection actions against MCS, allowing the school to continue operating normally while attempting to resolve the litigation.
MCS is the latest progressive school to run into financial struggle. The Blue School, a progressive arts school founded by founded by members of the Blue Man Group, closed in 2023 after running into debt troubles as enrollment dropped during the pandemic.
'What's different here and sad is typically I've seen new schools fail,' said Emily Glickman, an educational consultant who helps families with private-school admissions and had been getting worried calls from MCS parents before Friday's filing. 'MCS is a school with a rich history here in New York City.'
A bankruptcy lawyer representing MCS didn't immediately return a message seeking comment. The school said in its bankruptcy petition that the value of its property on 85th Street in Manhattan is $38 million.
MCS, which took out an initial $2.5 million loan in 2017, said in court filings it was holding talks with Flushing Bank when the foreclosure action was filed last October. Flushing has alleged MCS owes at least $3 million plus interest.
Founded in 1966 to reflect 'the vision of the Civil Rights Movement,' MCS' student body has 'no racial majority and broad economic diversity,' according to the school's website. The school serves kindergarten through eight graders in Manhattan and also owns a farm in Roxbury, New York, where it holds classes in cooking, farming, nature and textiles.
The case is Manhattan Country School, number 25-11009, in the US Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York
More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Time of India
2 hours ago
- Time of India
Fur-taxi and the Furious: How India's pet cabs are rescuing the rides for furry passengers
TAIL WINDS Live Events LONG-DISTANCE WOOFS BIG BROTHER STEPS IN (You can now subscribe to our (You can now subscribe to our Economic Times WhatsApp channel Maya, a wide-eyed indie with a nervous bark, trembled as the first Diwali crackers burst in the Bengaluru sky last year. Her pet parents, Rahul Chawda and Aarti Karwayun, knew the drill. Like every year, they had booked a pet-friendly stay in the countryside. But as usual, every regular cab they summoned turned back the moment they saw Maya.'Every year, the driver would either cancel or reluctantly allow her in, only to complain later. It was uncomfortable for everyone—driver, dog and us,' says a common story in urban India where pet ownership is climbing steadily. With over 32 million pets today—projected to rise to 51 million by 2028, according to India Brand Equity Foundation—more families are finding themselves stranded with furry dependents and no pet was during Covid-19 lockdowns that Mumbai-based Arpita Sandilya first felt the need for a pet transport service—not for emergencies, but to send rescued dogs to their adoption homes. 'That was my first real trigger, to be honest. I used my own car for rescues, and the idea just grew from there. I thought, why not start a service that helps rescuers and pet parents?' says Sandilya, who now runs a two-car fleet under her venture, TaxiForPaws Like many others in this space, she faces challenges. 'Finding pet-friendly drivers is hard. Not everyone is comfortable around animals or ready to clean the car after each ride.' Her cars are outfitted with blankets, bowls and custom-made dog-seat belts. 'Each trip ends with a deep clean—it is expensive, but essential.'Another Mumbai-based player, SDAASH Pet Cabs, started in 2022 after founder Pranav Lokhande lost his pet when no cab agreed to transport them. 'It cost us dearly,' says Heenal Lokhande , who runs the operations of two modifies its vehicles by removing the front passenger seat to create space for a soft bed. 'Some pets want to be beside their humans; others love their own space,' says TaxiForPaws, each ride of SDAASH is followed by a deep clean, and incidents like vomiting or peeing send the car straight to the wash station. The roadblock it faces is also similar—drivers. 'At times we ride the cab ourselves when drivers do not turn up, because we know the pain of not getting a cab on time.'In Delhi, FurryTaxi has faced similar hurdles. Founder Anurag Tripathi, who started the service with ad-hoc rescues in 2019 and later shifted to a structured service in 2022, now operates eight cars. 'In the past six months alone, we have done long-haul trips to Mumbai, Ahmedabad and Srinagar. It's growing,' says again, the crunch is drivers. 'Drivers must be pet-friendly, trained and calm even when a Rottweiler barks mid-ride.' Each driver goes through a vetting process: 'They accompany me for initial rides, then handle a few with owners onboard, before going solo,' says Tripathi. People use the service for veterinarian visits, boarding stations and airport visits. Pets can travel solo or their pet parents can accompany them in the demand comes from metro cities—Delhi, Mumbai, cross-country journeys, platforms like FidoJet and CarryMyPet are leading the FidoJet started in 2018 when its founders—Rajesh Sharma, Manjeet Swami and Nikhil Khalera—noticed that pets were often shipped like cargo. 'We were pet parents ourselves. Watching animals treated like packages was painful,' says cofounder began with road travel and now offer help with air and rail travel as well. It is supported by over 150 vehicles via vendor networks. Their cars come with booster seats, harness seat belts and non-slip routes are Delhi–Mumbai, Bengaluru–Kochi and Hyderabad–Goa. Pricing ranges from ₹12/km to ₹20/km depending on distance. 'Over 90% of the demand is from metros,' says Khalera. 'But we have handled everything from senior dogs to blind pets. Every case requires planning, patience and empathy.'No story captures this better than that of Dobby, a wheelchair-bound stray adopted during the pandemic. Carry My Pet helped relocate Dobby from Nagpur to Poland. 'The owner had every reason to leave Dobby behind. But she chose love,' says Faisal Islam , cofounder, Carry My Pet. 'We managed her journey across continents, with careful coordination and tailored care.'Carry My Pet, headquartered in Gurgaon, operates on an asset-light model, partnering with logistics firms across India. They offer multimodal pet relocation by air, train and road. Their pricing starts at ₹13/km for cabs, ₹10,000 for relocation via train and ₹25,000 for domestic notes that demand is rising about 10% year-on-year. 'Pet owners today want real-time tracking, transparency and expert help.'But it's not all smooth. Regulatory ambiguity, breed restrictions, lack of pet-friendly rail infrastructure and inconsistent airport facilities still pose hurdles. 'We have relocated thousands of pets with a zero-harm record, but every ride demands precision,' says relocation he recalls is moving a Labrador named Ludo from Delhi to Port of Spain, via a complex, multi-leg route through Miami and the Caribbean. 'It took weeks of planning, but seeing Ludo reunited with his family was worth everything.'Even tech majors are watching. Uber, for instance, has introduced Uber Pet in cities like Mumbai and Bengaluru. Pet parents confirm that while it's a welcome addition, the experience is still inconsistent.'Drivers often are not prepared, and there are no comfortable amenities,' says a Mumbai-based user. 'But it is better than nothing, especially when specialised services aren't available.'India's pet and pet-care market is forecast to double to $7 billion by 2028, according to consulting firm Redseer. As pets take centre stage in urban homes, pet-cab services have shifted from niche novelty to everyday essential
NDTV
2 hours ago
- NDTV
How The Vatican Manages Money And Where Pope Leo XIV Might Find More
Vatican City: The world's smallest country has a big budget problem. The Vatican doesn't tax its residents or issue bonds. It primarily finances the Catholic Church's central government through donations that have been plunging, ticket sales for the Vatican Museums, as well as income from investments and an underperforming real estate portfolio. The last year the Holy See published a consolidated budget, in 2022, it projected 770 million euros ($878 million), with the bulk paying for embassies around the world and Vatican media operations. In recent years, it hasn't been able to cover costs. That leaves Pope Leo XIV facing challenges to drum up the funds needed to pull his city-state out of the red. Withering Donations Anyone can donate money to the Vatican, but the regular sources come in two main forms. Canon law requires bishops around the world to pay an annual fee, with amounts varying and at bishops' discretion "according to the resources of their dioceses." U.S. bishops contributed over one-third of the $22 million (19.3 million euros) collected annually under the provision from 2021-2023, according to Vatican data. The other main source of annual donations is more well-known to ordinary Catholics: Peter's Pence, a special collection usually taken on the last Sunday of June. From 2021-2023, individual Catholics in the U.S. gave an average $27 million (23.7 million euros) to Peter's Pence, more than half the global total. American generosity hasn't prevented overall Peter's Pence contributions from cratering. After hitting a high of $101 million (88.6 million euros) in 2006, contributions hovered around $75 million (66.8 million euros) during the 2010's then tanked to $47 million (41.2 million euros) during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, when many churches were closed. Donations remained low in the following years, amid revelations of the Vatican's bungled investment in a London property, a former Harrod's warehouse that it hoped to develop into luxury apartments. The scandal and ensuing trial confirmed that the vast majority of Peter's Pence contributions had funded the Holy See's budgetary shortfalls, not papal charity initiatives as many parishioners had been led to believe. Peter's Pence donations rose slightly in 2023 and Vatican officials expect more growth going forward, in part because there has traditionally been a bump immediately after papal elections. New Donors The Vatican bank and the city state's governorate, which controls the museums, also make annual contributions to the pope. As recently as a decade ago, the bank gave the pope around 55 million euros ($62.7 million) a year to help with the budget. But the amounts have dwindled; the bank gave nothing specifically to the pope in 2023, despite registering a net profit of 30 million euros ($34.2 million), according to its financial statements. The governorate's giving has likewise dropped off. Some Vatican officials ask how the Holy See can credibly ask donors to be more generous when its own institutions are holding back. Leo will need to attract donations from outside the U.S., no small task given the different culture of philanthropy, said the Rev. Robert Gahl, director of the Church Management Program at Catholic University of America's business school. He noted that in Europe there is much less of a tradition (and tax advantage) of individual philanthropy, with corporations and government entities doing most of the donating or allocating designated tax dollars. Even more important is leaving behind the "mendicant mentality" of fundraising to address a particular problem, and instead encouraging Catholics to invest in the church as a project, he said. Speaking right after Leo's installation ceremony in St. Peter's Square, which drew around 200,000 people, Gahl asked: "Don't you think there were a lot of people there that would have loved to contribute to that and to the pontificate?" In the U.S., donation baskets are passed around at every Sunday Mass. Not so at the Vatican. Untapped Real Estate The Vatican has 4,249 properties in Italy and 1,200 more in London, Paris, Geneva and Lausanne, Switzerland. Only about one-fifth are rented at fair market value, according to the annual report from the APSA patrimony office, which manages them. Some 70% generate no income because they house Vatican or other church offices; the remaining 10% are rented at reduced rents to Vatican employees. In 2023, these properties only generated 35 million euros ($39.9 million) in profit. Financial analysts have long identified such undervalued real estate as a source of potential revenue. But Ward Fitzgerald, the president of the U.S.-based Papal Foundation, which finances papal charities, said the Vatican should also be willing to sell properties, especially those too expensive to maintain. Many bishops are wrestling with similar downsizing questions as the number of church-going Catholics in parts of the U.S. and Europe shrinks and once-full churches stand empty. Toward that end, the Vatican recently sold the property housing its embassy in Tokyo's high-end Sanbancho neighborhood, near the Imperial Palace, to a developer building a 13-story apartment complex, according to the Kensetsu News trade journal. Yet there has long been institutional reluctance to part with even money-losing properties. Witness the Vatican announcement in 2021 that the cash-strapped Fatebenefratelli Catholic hospital in Rome, run by a religious order, would not be sold. Pope Francis simultaneously created a Vatican fundraising foundation to keep it and other Catholic hospitals afloat. "They have to come to grips with the fact that they own so much real estate that is not serving the mission of the church," said Fitzgerald, who built a career in real estate private equity.
News18
4 hours ago
- News18
PNB Makes Home And Car Loans Cheaper From June 9 Following RBI Rate Cut
Last Updated: Effective from June 9, 2025, PNB's revised lending rates will make EMIs significantly more affordable for both existing and new borrowers. PNB Home Loan New Rate: Punjab National Bank (PNB), one of India's leading public sector lenders, has announced a sharp reduction in its lending rates, offering much-needed relief to borrowers. The bank has revised its Repo Linked Lending Rate (RLLR) downward by 50 basis points (bps), following the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) recent decision to cut the repo rate by 50 bps. With this recent cut, the repo rate— the interest rate at which the RBI lends to banks— now stands at 5.50 percent, down from 6 percent. This marks the third interest rate cut by the RBI since the COVID-19 pandemic. Between May 2020 and April 2022, the RBI kept the repo rate steady at 4 percent. New Rates Effective From June 09 Effective from June 9, 2025, PNB's revised lending rates will make EMIs significantly more affordable for both existing and new borrowers. As per the bank's latest update on social media platform X, the new rates are: Home Loans starting from 7.45% per annum Vehicle Loans starting from 7.80% per annum Lower lending rates mean cheaper access to credit, allowing consumers to save more on interest payments over the loan tenure. Borrowers with existing loans linked to RLLR will automatically see their EMIs reduced in the coming billing cycle, while new borrowers can now avail loans at significantly lower rates. The rate cut is particularly beneficial for homebuyers, car loan applicants, and small business owners who rely on institutional finance. Between May 2020 and April 2022, the RBI kept the repo rate steady at 4 percent. From April 2022 to February 2023, the RBI gradually increased the policy rates to 6.5 percent, maintaining this rate for two years until the recent reductions.
