New York's school spending battle begins in earnest

Lawmakers grilled state Education Commissioner MaryEllen Elia for four hours on Wednesday, asking her about everything from measles vaccines to classroom technology to teacher evaluation and school safety strategies. One lawmaker, freshman Queens Democratic Sen. John Liu, even asked Elia if she believed in ghosts (he was joking).
But one topic that they didn't broach with the commissioner, which was arguably the 900-pound elephant in the room, was the $2.3 billion budget gap that was revealed du