Twenty Years of Mayoral Control in NYC - a Failed Reform

 

December 18, 2023

The State Education Department is holding hearings on mayoral control, the second of which are scheduled for tonight in Queens, since the system will either be lapse, be renewed or revised by the end of June 2024.  Here is a video of the Dec.5 hearing in the Bronx.

Please sign up to speak at the remaining hearings in the other three boroughs as soon as the links are posted at the webpage above, or submit written testimony, the deadline for which is Jan. 31.  The deep flaws in this autocratic system were evident almost as soon as it was adopted. However, this year there seems to be a stronger consensus than ever before that the system must change for the sake of NYC children.  I have put together a brief reading list of some of my testimonies over the years below, as well as some other useful links for those of you who want more background on this critical issue. 

If you have suggestions on pieces to add to it, please let me know in the comment section or by emailing the link to info@classsizematters.org Thanks!

2004 

NYT account of the Monday massacre, where in opposition to expert views of most educators and researchers, Mayor fired his own appointees in order to get the Panel on Educational Policy to approve holding back third graders on the basis of their state test scores. This policy was later expanded to all grades up to eighth grade, but was rescinded in 2014, because of lack of positive results on achievement and evidence that it increased dropout rates. (For the latter see this subsequent RAND study.)

NYT oped by Diane Ravitch and Randi Weingarten, on how mayoral control needs to be amended, as the PEP acts as a rubber-stamp as evidenced by Bloomberg’s firing of his appointees to get his way on grade retention, and how he was running the DOE “along the lines of a corporate business model, as though educating children were no different from selling toothpaste.”

2007 

A critique in City Journal by conservative commentator Sol Stern, who recounted the DOE's waste of money on public relation, their manipulation of test scores, and how Bloomberg retorted if people didn’t like how he runs the schools to they can “boo me at parades.”

2009  

Parent Commission Report on School Governance A thorough analysis of the many problems with mayoral control and recommendations by an independent group of parent volunteers on how to improve the system (disclosure: I was a member.)

NYC Schools under Bloomberg and Klein: A collection of essays by many experts and advocates, with an introduction by Diane Ravitch, describing the negative impact of one-man rule. (Also available for purchase for $5.74 in paperback form here).

Assembly hearing transcripts on mayoral control in the Bronx and Brooklyn, with many parents and educators testifying about their concerns. [I can't find the Manhattan, Queens or Staten Island transcripts, but here is a video-taped debate by two students at Democracy Prep at the Manhattan hearings between ]

Many articles about how Mayor Bloomberg assembled supporters and commissioner an expensive PR campaign to lobby for the continuation of Mayoral control via a group called Learn NY, that was secretly funded with millions of dollars from fervent charter school supporters, including billionaires Eli Broad and Bill Gates.  As Bill  Gates later explained , he spent $4 million on renewing Mayoral control in NYC as “You want to allow for experimentation. The cities where our foundation has put the most money is where there is a single person responsible. In New York, Chicago and Washington, DC, the mayor has the responsibility for the school system.”  It is no coincidence that all three districts encouraged the expansion of charter schools under Mayoral control.  

More here on this campaign, led by charter school director Geoffrey Canada, that included clumsy ads featuring misinformation, failed attempts to recruit parents,  and pro-Mayoral control comments under pseudonyms posted on blogs, including this one.  Unfortunately, big money won out over parent and educator voices, and Mayoral control was renewed without significant changes.

2010

Why Public Schools Need Democratic Governance: Diane Ravitch makes the case for elected school boards, and explains how the push towards Mayoral control in NYC and elsewhere is funded and led by those who want to privatize our public schools.

2013

NYC Comptroller report No more Rubber Stamp: Trenchant analysis of many of the flaws with the system, especially notable since it was issued by then-NYC Comptroller John Liu, now chair of NY Senate NYC Education Committee.

2015

Gotham Gazette oped, Time to reform Mayoral control.  Succinct analysis by parent leader Shino Tanikawa and me.

2016

Our Testimony on Mayoral Control before State Senate, pointing out how despite claims of great progress, our analysis of NAEP test scores shows that New York City schools came out second to last among ten cities in improved achievement, when results are disaggregated by race, ethnicity,
and economic status.

2019

Our testimony before the NY Senate, focusing on how Mayoral Control in NYC is inherently undemocratic and provides no real checks and balances to autocratic rule.  As a result, it has too often suffered from insufficient input from parents and community members, closest to conditions on the ground, the result being damaging policies and unwise spending priorities.  

2020

My piece for the Indypendent on Bloomberg's disastrous education legacy at the end of his twelve-year reign, the product of unchecked one-man control.

CSM testimony to NY Assembly on Five myths of Mayoral control, including that it provides less real accountability, despite claims otherwise.

2022

CSM testimony before NY Assembly and Senate; Why Mayoral control needs to be amended ; including examples of problematic and delayed decisionmaking by Mayor De Blasio and specific proposals for improvement -- including at least three which were adopted.

NeQuan McLean and Shino Tanikawa, It’s Time for a Democratic School Governance System to Replace Mayoral Control

2023

Education Week, Mayoral control: a Fading school reform: How Chicago schools and other districts are moving away from one-person rule.