Judge rules Dept. of Education can release names

The City Education Department can release the names of more than 12,000 teachers along with scores that rate their performance, a judge ruled Monday.

Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Cynthia Kern's ruling was a blow to the United Federation of Teachers, which argued the rankings are riddled with career-ending errors.

The union plans to appeal; the city will not release the information while the case continues.

Kern said the union's interest in keeping "these possibly flawed statistics" private did not outweigh the public's right to know. "This information is of interest to parents, students, taxpayers and the public generally," Kern wrote.