The End of Mayoral Control of Our Schools

Thanks to the ICE Yahoo group for posting this;
The End of Mayoral ControlBY ANDREW WOLFMarch 2, 2007
URL: http://www.nysun.com/article/49636



When the history books are written, it will be noted that the beginning ofthe end of New York's grand experiment with mayoral control of the schoolscame at 6:30 a.m. on January 29, 2007. It was then that the city's schoolbuses began to roll on new routes suggested by an extraordinarily expensiveoutside consultant, hand-picked without competitive bidding by theDepartment of Education.In a certain sense it is a sad reflection of our times that the outrage overthe direction of the schools came as a result of the peripheral issue of busroutes. That eighth-grade reading scores haven't budged in eight years, areflection of educational stagnation impacting tens of thousands of ourstudents, doesn't seem quite as compelling as one child waiting in the coldfor a bus that never comes.The outrage over the bus plan has re-energized parent activists. When themayor eliminated the 32 school districts and their superintendents fouryears ago, protests were held throughout the city. A time-tested strategywas employed to defuse parents and activists: give them jobs and contracts.The creation of the job of "parent coordinator" in all city schoolsconverted more than 1,000 possible foes to true believers.Other jobs were found for citywide parent leaders such as Ernest Clayton,then the head of the United Parents Association, once the city's mostvisible parent group. When was the last time you heard about the UnitedParents Association?On Wednesday, the mayor and chancellor announced, at a hastily called pressconference, the appointment of a "chief family engagement officer" for thepublic schools, Martine Guerrier, who had been the appointee of thepresident of Brooklyn, Martin Markowitz, to the Panel for Education Policy.The cost of all this has risen. Mr. Clayton was brought into the fold as aparent support officer in Queens for a mere $60,000 salary. Ms. Guerrier isbeing paid a cool $150,000.The announcement was made just hours before a rally was held at St. Vartan'schurch in Murray Hill. The rally was sponsored by the Working FamiliesParty, the political arm of the city's unions and left-wing "organizing"groups such as ACORN.This must come as a disappointment to the mayor and chancellor, who havegone so far as to give groups like ACORN and the Northwest Bronx Communityand Clergy Coalition control over some of the new small high schools.Certainly, the United Federation of Teachers is doing all it can toencourage the outrage. But the concern of parents throughout the city isreal. It emanates from the mistakes made by a top-down structure that hassystematically excluded New York's greatest strength, our communities.Last week, scores of angry parents couldn't get into a forum with thechancellor in the South Bronx because the room was filled. In Forest Hills,parents at a middle school are upset that one of the new small high schoolswill be placed in their building. In Riverdale, parents are livid that their5-year-olds who are accepted into a long awaited gifted and talented programmay be bused to another school miles from home.In Throggs Neck, parents are shocked that one of the city's top middleschools, M.S. 101, is being dismantled. One of Brooklyn's state senators,Carl Kruger, is upset that the gifted and talented programs in his districtare being compromised, while Korean-American parents at the Bronx HighSchool of Science feel their children have been discriminated against onforeign language offerings. There is plenty of grassroots outrage over thedirection of the schools.It's no wonder that the chancellor, when in Albany on Monday, got a grillingby legislators. It is convenient for many, such as the editorialists at theNew York Post, to lay all this at the feet of the UFT. But this is not acase of the dog eating the homework. The mayor and Mr. Klein are beinggraded by the public here, and the public is concluding that unfetteredmayoral control has failed.I favor the mayor running the schools, but under the watchful eye of anentity that can apply some restraint on foolishness when it occurs. Thelogic would be a reconstituted independent board of education. With themayor term-limited, the principle of electoral accountability is, for theBloomberg administration, moot. This issue will surely come before theLegislature, perhaps sooner than we think.