The Daily News sells out City parents and teachers and sides with Corporatization of the NYC Schools, why doesn't that surprise me...I couldn't disagree more with their assessment - I feel Chancellor Klein and the Mayor have run roughshod over parents and our communities to the detriment of our schools and the mission to educate our children...
The City Council Monday began to discuss the epochally bad idea of abandoning, or curtailing, what's known as "mayoral control" of New York City's public schools.
Even to entertain the thought is to work against the best interests of New York's 1.1 million schoolchildren. For what's at stake is the question of whether anyone will be responsible - and accountable - for improving the quality of education.
The mayor has been vested for six years with both responsibility and accountability - and Michael Bloomberg has done a darn good job with the nation's largest school system.
There are, of course, dissenters. Some disagree with the reading curriculum. Some think testing is overemphasized. And so on down a list of issues. What's beyond question is that someone is actually answerable for results.
Before "mayoral control," there were the Board of Education and local school boards. The former was composed of faceless political appointees who shielded elected officials and did the bidding of advocacy groups, including school unions. The latter added corruption to the mix.
Year after dreary year, nothing got done because responsibility was so diffused. Then Bloomberg did what no mayor had had the courage to do: He sought authority over the schools. The Legislature agreed to a seven-year test, ending in 2009.
A lot happened that never would have happened under the Board of Ed. A whole lot:
The end to social promotion. The addition of 54,000 new classroom seats plus a $13 billion building program. The opening of 50 charter schools. Teachers' contracts that boosted salaries while giving principals greater authority. Principals' contracts that demand performance. A landmark grading system for the schools themselves.
Regardless, a drive is beginning to loosen the next mayor's grip and shift power back to those who lost it.
Teachers union chief Randi Weingarten spoke yesterday at the hearing about returning authority to other officials, saying that "public involvement has to have a broad electoral component. Electing the mayor once or twice isn't enough."
Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer told the Council that he wants "checks and balances" to prevent "authoritarianism."
That way lies chaos. To substantially weaken the mayor would be to let the schools run out of control.
