Schools

House Republicans aren't known for their well-reasoned spending proposals lately, but they took it to a new level today by sending President Obama a $375 billion budget-cutting plan that slices $1 billion from bicycle and pedestrian programs.

If you're in Fort Greene tomorrow, drop by 51 St. Edwards Street for some great Livable Streets action. Students from the Community Roots Charter School will be out in the street from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., working on a new mural covering the pavement in front of their school, and volunteers are welcome to join in. The mural painting is the joint handiwork of DOT's Urban Art Program, Livable Streets Education, and local artists and teachers. Sound unusual? It is. We're told this may be the first time NYCDOT has ever approved a pavement painting project.

IndyKids is a New York-based school newspaper distributed online and in print nationwide to students in grades four through eight. With its distinctly progressive point of view, the ad-free pub aims to counter the often commercialized infotainment that has been piped into American classrooms for decades. Say the editors: "We believe that kids understand what is happening around them and the truth does not have to be sanitized."

More than two dozen students braved 32-degree cold this Sunday for the launch of NYU's bike-share program. The ride took them down Second Avenue and over the Manhattan Bridge to see some of Brooklyn's new bike lanes.

Robin Urban Smith files this report from P.S. 76 in the Bronx, where students wrapped up a month-long bike safety course with a playground "rodeo" on Wednesday. This June, Michael Needham Jr., a fifth-grader at the school, lost his life after a speeding car hit him while he was riding with friends near the Allerton library.