Above is a video of the full hearing last week on Mayoral control, also available here. The questioning from the new Chair, Eric Dinowitz, as well as several other council members was incisive, as was the oral testimonies of many parents, advocates and former students about how this governance system without checks and balances or community input was inherently undemocratic and had led to unjust and damaging policies.
Below are five of the written testimonies, first from famed historian and advocate Diane Ravitch, followed by mine for Class Size Matters , then Jonathan Greenberg of the Educational Council Consortium, followed by Naveed Hasan, PEP member and parent leader, and tfinally, Naila Rosario of NYC Kids PAC.
All five of us pointed out the deep inherent flaws with what is essentially on man rule, though we proposed somewhat different solutions.
In my testimony, I provide a list of major, multimillion dollars examples of waste and corruption under Mayoral control -- in the text and in the Appendix. Just two days after the hearing, yet another major scandal erupted: Kevin Taylor, the head of the School Safety division was indicted for bribery along with the CEO of the SaferWatch company, who had paid Taylor as well as Terence Banks, the brother of Chancellor Banksto try to sell the device to DOE, though Terence Banks has not been indicted. See story here and the indictment here.
Here is the written testimony of Jonathan Greenberg of the Educational Council Consortium, which represents many leaders of Community Education Councils.
Following are the views of Naveed Hasan, a Manhattan parent representative on the Panel for Educational Policy.
Finally, last but not least, the testimony of Naila Rosario, the President of NYC Kids PAC, who points out how Mayor Mamdani has left his supporters in the lurch, by reversing his position on mayoral control, one of his central education positions, without explaining why.
