Watch video...
Mayor Michael Bloomberg has nearly total say over how to run the city's schools. But the state law that gave him that power expires in June of next year and already there's a debate about whether that power should continue.
Has putting so much power in the mayor's hands meant kids are learning more? Education reporter Michael Meenan filed the following report.
In 2002, the state legislature gave Mayor Michael Bloomberg the reins to the school system...and the men he's picked to run that system say, as you might expect, it's paid off."The school system prior to our control was a hodgepodge of different districts that were unstable, chaotic and at times corrupt,” said Deputy Mayor Dennis Walcott.
But many at a Monday City Council hearing also say all the power has made Bloomberg's Department of Education very arrogant.
"That they don't have to invite elected officials to meetings, that they don't have to consult with parents – it's almost a DOE badge of honor,” said Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer.
Now there are calls for a blue ribbon commission to study how the law is working and if kids are learning more because of it.
"A blue ribbon commission with qualified professionals who can tell us really if our schools are improving, how they are improving,” said city Councilmember James Vacca.
The law came with checks on the mayor's school power, first in the form of the Panel for Educational Policy, or PEP, the board that took over from the old Board of Education. The PEP has to approve every major school initiative. But since the mayor appoints and can un-appoint a majority of the members, critics charge the panel is little more than a rubber stamp.
“You either must go along with what the mayor says or the chancellor says or else you will be removed and that… is intimidating to those on the PEP,” said City Councilmember Robert Jackson.
The second power check consists of 32 Community Education Councils, or CECs, made up of elected PTA members. The CECs replaced the 32 old school boards where that corruption Walcott mentioned used to happen. Bloomberg fought in federal court to get the CECs, but Vacca says, according to school parents, he never bothered to get them really up and running.
"They may want to corner a CEC member, which used to be a school board, but they have no idea what a CEC member is,” says Vacca.
The education department concedes the CECs could be more effective. Perhaps that’s the sort of humility city lawmakers and others are looking for as they get ready to send on their recommendations to the state legislature.
Ultimately, it is state lawmakers in Albany who get to decide whether or not Bloomberg's successor gets the same power he has had in running the city schools.
– Michael Meenan
