NEW YORK (AP) -- New York City plans to use housing subsidies of nearly $15,000 to recruit much-needed math, science and special education teachers to some of its toughest schools.

Schools spokesman David Cantor said Wednesday that the subsidy program was believed to be the most generous of its kind in the nation and that the school system, the country's largest, will recruit from throughout the United States.

The teachers would get up to $5,000 up front to help cover relocation costs and down payments, then $400 monthly subsidies for two years.

In return, they would have to commit to teaching for at least three years primarily in the city's most challenging middle or high schools, Cantor said. He said the school system plans to launch an advertising campaign next week with the goal of recruiting 100 new teachers by June.

The New York City schools system has 1.1 million students and an annual budget of about $14.5 billion.

Housing costs in New York City are among the most expensive in the country.

"Many public school educators, like other public servants in our city, often struggle to pay their bills," said Randi Weingarten, president of the teachers union, which worked with the city to come up with the subsidy offer. "I know all my members will welcome this assistance."

Housing subsidies have been used to attract teachers to high-cost communities in the past, including in California and in one community outside Washington, D.C., where five elementary teachers were offered apartments rent-free in a crime-prone area for agreeing to serve as role models and tutors to neighborhood children.

Philanthropist donates cruise ship to colleges

WARREN, Rhode Island (AP) -- Three colleges will share an unusual donation from a local philanthropist -- a 175-foot cruise ship that has been plying the Mississippi River.

China to train U.S. teachers in Chinese language

NEW YORK (AP) -- Calling Chinese "an important tool for the rest of the world," China's education minister announced a plan Wednesday to help train hundreds of U.S. educators in the language.

Law raises fears of more school segregation

HARTFORD, Connecticut (AP) -- Betty Sternberg is in charge of two school systems. One, scattered throughout the state, is rich and white. The other, isolated in seven large towns, is poor and minority.

'No Child' loophole misses millions of scores

Laquanya Agnew and Victoria Duncan share a desk, a love of reading and a passion for learning. But because of a loophole in the No Child Left Behind Act, one second-grader's score in Tennessee counts more than the other's.

Buckets used as bathrooms in school lockdown

INGLEWOOD, California (AP) -- A principal trying to prevent walkouts during immigration rallies inadvertently introduced a lockdown so strict that children weren't allowed to go to the bathroom, and instead had to use buckets in the classroom, an official said.