Mayoral control hearings - and the consensus that the current system doesn't work

The NY Assembly Education chair Michael Benedetto and other members of the Education committee held hearings today on Mayoral control which the Legislature renewed with minor changes last spring until June 2022.

Benedetto announced this was to be only the first of many hearings and roundtables they plan to hold to engage other advocates, academics, educators, etc.  Assemblymembers Mike Reilly of Staten Island and Alicia Hyndman of Queens, both former CEC Presidents, along with AMs Joanne Simon of Brooklyn and Harvey Epstein of Manhattan were there and asked lots of good questions.

Many CEC members and others spoke decried the lack of transparency, accountability, checks and balances, and real parent and community input into DOE decision-making.  No one testified strongly in favor of the current system except for Chancellor Carranza, who insisted it was the best system he had ever worked under because it allowed him to coordinate with other city agencies and make fast policy changes with little interference.

Council Member Mark Treyger testified that the Council should have a stronger role in making policy, perhaps by putting an appointed member on the Panel for Educational Policy.  Several of us suggested a Commission be formed to examine these issues more closely and gain more public input. I also proposed that the Legislature create the position of an independent DOE ombudsperson,  to respond to parent concerns.

My testimony follows, but in response to questions I also discussed many other issues, including the recommendations of the Parent Commission that we formed in 2008-9, school overcrowding, how DOE is shutting out parents by closing District leadership team meetings, their utter failure to respond to FOILs in a timely fashion, and more. Indeed, there can be no accountability without transparency and DOE gets an "F" in both.

If others have testimony to share, you can email it to the committee at whylandf@nyassembly.gov

Josh Karan: an opportunity to revise Mayoral control and what should happen next

Guest blog by Josh Karan below.  Though I'm not as optimistic that parents will have any say in what happens if and when mayoral control lapses, the Parent Commission which was a part of in 2008 did have a rigorous analysis of what was wrong with mayoral control and how to improve upon it. We invited any parent or parent advocate to be part of our group, held panel discussions with experts on school governance and critical education issues, and deliberated for an entire year before coming up with our consensus recommendations. For those who would like to see what we proposed, you can check out our full report here. -- Leonie

___

We have an unexpected opportunity to influence how NYC schools are governed, which could make them more engaging of and accountable to communities. 

Since 2002 the granting of control of the schools to the Mayor by the NY State legislature has required periodic re-authorization.  Presently such granting of power expires July 1, and there has been a deadlock between various factions as to the terms for its reauthorization.

Therefore, according to staff of one NY State Senator, the NYS legislature will be convening a Special Session after July 4 to address the issue of NYC school governance. 

This has panicked proponents of Mayoral Control, including the di Blasio administration, and many others, who view Mayoral Control as responsible for great improvements in educational outcomes.  They are seeking a multi-year, re-authorization, while Republicans and some Democrats, want to link re-authorization to an expansion of Charter schools, and an audit of how the school system has been spending its money.  

Proponents of Mayoral Control have argued that the alternative would be a return to what they assert were corrupt, unrepresentative, local Community School Boards.  

This impasse allows some opportunity to affect the debate, perhaps resulting in the Special Session granting only a short-term re-authorization, while we work to re-invigorate the discussion about the role of parents and communities in the formulation of the structure of decision making for public education, as well as its goals. 

The context can be proposals that a group of us, calling ourselves The Parent Commission, compiled in 2008, when then Mayor Michael Bloomberg first desired renewal of his control over NYC schools. 

At that time, over many months, a group of 15-30 parent activists discussed various proposals for democratic governance of NYC schools, and the mission that should underlie the school system. It issued a series of recommendations which again are pertinent. 

They can be viewed at:  www.parentcommission.org.

Not everyone on the Commission agreed with every proposal, but we came to a consensus, which we offered as the basis for discussion about how our schools should function.  

These proposals are again timely.  They offer an alternative to the binary positing of opposites, whereby the only alternatives are seen as either authoritarian Mayoral Control or the old corrupt Community School Boards.  We believed that pretending there were only two possibilities reflected a failure of imagination in the public discourse, and its capture by those with a point of view about public education that would not well serve the majority of its students. 

Anyone wanting to be involved in talking to legislators about this, please contact me:

joshkaran@mac.com

--------------

A summary of the Parent Commission proposals:

A)  Central Governance Structure 

We recommend a governance system distinguished by an educational partnership that includes the Mayor, a Board of Education whose members will strive toward cohesion and consensus, and new independent oversight agencies to verify financial and academic outcomes, investigate corruption, and respond to parental complaints.

B) Restoration of Community School Districts as meaningful entities

— whereby CEC’s have an important role in choosing the District Superintendent, who in consultation with the CEC and District Presidents Councils, and Community Board will help develop the annual capital plan, the district’s class size reduction plan, the Contract for Excellence spending, and the District Comprehensive Education plan, and whereby CEC’s have the full authority under the law to approve school siting, selection, restructuring, expansion, and reconfiguration of schools, as well as the closing, opening and relocating of all traditional public and charter schools in their districts.

C) Establish an Education Constitution to Proclaim the Mission of the NYC School System to provide the vision and mandates necessary to provide all our city’s children with a truly comprehensive, public and democratic education

Recognize that more than governance must be addressed, because through a variety of governance structures and chancellors over the last 40 years, little has changed for the majority of students, who are primarily low-income children of color.  The Parent Commission sought an explicit and legally binding statement of what education is intended to accomplish, to be embodied in a Constitution for the New York City Public School System that would codify in law a shared mission with core principles, primary goals, and a policy framework that must be respected and upheld by whomever is governing the system. Only in this way can our public servants be held to account for the money, resources, programs and staff needed to provide educational excellence for all.  Some mandates might involve resources for facilities and support staff and class size requirements, while others might involve educational philosophy regarding the use of multiple forms of assessment; the necessity of valuing diversity of ethnicity, race, and class; as well as the educational importance of racial and economic integration of schools. 

Let the Public Advocate advocate for a new direction for our schools

As one of only three citywide elected officials, the Public Advocate can play an important role in articulating alternative policies from those carried out by the Mayor In perhaps no other area would this be more important than for the NYC school system. because it consumes 1/3 of the City budget, and because the Mayor has untrammeled statutory control to run the schools.

The current Public Advocate, Bill de Blasio, is especially qualified to play such a role, as a public school parent and a former school board member in District 15 in Brooklyn, who considers himself a progressive, community based activist.

Unfortunately, nine months after his election, he has not presented a systematic vision for our public schools, nor a program around which to mobilize change. Recently he released a report criticizing the Department of Education's school co-location policy that has negatively affected dozens of schools by taking important space within them.

Yet even more significant are the threat of budget cuts that threaten to undo the financial gains from the nearly twenty-year struggle of the Campaign For Fiscal Equity lawsuit and the false assertions of the Mayor and Chancellor of immense progress under their regime. These claims have obstructed the adoption of measures which could truly make a difference in the quality of education, such as building more schools, lowering class size, ensuring a broad based curricula, mentoring teachers and principals, and cultivating the civic values of creativity, imagination, and peaceful conflict resolution.

While the reality of little improvement has been apparent to knowledgeable parents and activists for many years, few political figures on the city or state level have been willing to challenge the administration’s assertions of improving student performance and rising graduation rates The recent acknowledgement by the state that their exams and their scoring have become far too easy may provide an opening to change the widespread official perception. It is time for all of us to agree that the gains in test scores were illusory, and that policies such as "credit recovery" which lift graduation rates are just a new name for the social promotion of unprepared students. At best 50 percent of NYC students graduate from high school in four years, and those who do graduate are vastly unequipped for college work or citizenry in a democratic society.

An alternative vision for our schools would begin with support of the policies mentioned above, and would provide structures to train and involve parents, communities, and educators in crafting that vision. It would involve the kinds of recommendations made a year ago by the Parent Commission in its report issued during the legislative debate over mayoral control. (http: parentcommission.org)

These recommendations offer a new direction for democratic participation and ---through the adoption of an Education Constitution --- mandate a vision for the NYC public school system along with the resources needed to implement that vision for all students. The recommendations include a real role for districts, and the formation of a Parent Union.

Such a vision was presented to the Public Advocate's office by activists from three districts at meeting in April, which was organized by him to begin a process of involving parents in defining the salient educational issues facing their families. However, the response at that meeting by the Public Advocate's staff was dismissive, and there has been no follow-up since.

The challenges facing our schools long predate the Bloomberg-Klein administration. Experienced parents, community members, and educators have addressed these issues for decades. Yet the administration’s reliance on lawyers and business executives rather than educators and parents have brought about few valuable changes, much heavy handed disruption, and the waste of billions of dollars in experiments without any basis in research or experience---such as closing schools, firing teachers, narrowing curricula, and expanding the number of charter schools. They have failed to lower class sizes to the levels the city committed to in the CFE settlement, or to eliminate pervasive overcrowding that prevents adequate space for arts, sciences, and physical education, or to develop an effective program for mentoring teachers and principals.

The Public Advocate could be a galvanizing spokesperson to highlight these failures and present an alternative vision. He would best be able to do so by involving those who have been left out of the discussion. Let him convene a citywide education summit, and establish working committees comprised of parents, community activists, and educators, many of whom have retired because of their disagreement with the current regime.

Collectively such a group could formulate a new direction to replace the mayor’s current, discredited policies. The Public Advocate could use the resources of his office to promote this alternative vision in communities throughout the city. That would spur the kind of debate about education policy which has been missing from this city for too long. ---

Josh Karan has been engaged for 30 years in organizing communities to promote democratic public educational excellence. He has been a parent activist for the past 15 years in District 6, Washington Heights/Inwood, in support of the Campaign For Fiscal Equity lawsuit begun in his district.

Message to Senators: just say no!

This letter went out this afternoon to the members of the NY State Senate.

Dear Senators:

On behalf of the Parent Commission, we urge you to vote no on the three chapter amendments on school governance; and no on the Padavan/Silver bill.

The original Huntley and Sampson bills recognized the need for checks and balances and a real partnership between parents and the mayor in school governance. The new Huntley and Dilan/Perkins amendments would require a vote by all parents in electing members of Community Education Councils, which is a step forward.

But the amendments contain none of our other recommendations to strengthen the parent voice: no independent parent organization, no commission of stakeholders, no greater authority for CECs or School Leadership Teams. They do not make the Chancellor and the DOE subject to city law, nor do they provide any significant checks and balances by creating a more independent Board of Education.

At the same time, all three amendments take two steps backwards by limiting elected CEC members to only two, two-year terms.

It’s hard enough to find parents willing to run for this office as it is. In our estimation, this provision would make it considerably more difficult, and would lead to excessive attrition and fewer experienced parents in these seats . The collective memory and the historical perspectives embodied in long-time parent leaders are critically important for CECs to function effectively. Stripping these parent leaders of the right to serve by introducing such restrictive term limits is detrimental to parental engagement in the education of their children. If the concern is to allow parent voices to be heard, then the solution is to strengthen the legal authority of the CECs -- which neither the amendments nor the Silver/Padavan bill would achieve.

Meanwhile, the Mayor is running for his third consecutive four-year term, and the Legislature has no term limits at all. It is hard to see any rationale for this provision, except to further weaken parent input and put parents even more at the mercy of the Mayor's unilateral decision-making .

We urge you to vote no on the three amendments and on the Silver/Padavan bill, to demonstrate your recognition that unlimited mayoral control is not the will of most of your constituents nor most public school parents.

In two recent polls, the Quinnipiac and the Marist, voters overwhelmingly said that the mayor should share power with an indendent board, and/or the City Council. Despite the hard work of many parents and some legislators, none of the proposed chapter amendments corrects the most fundamental flaws of the 2002 governance law, effectively continuing the status quo.

One man rule is not only contrary to our entire democratic system of checks and balances, but has led to unwise and destructive policies in our schools, including hundreds of millions of dollars wasted in no-bid contracts, more overcrowding, larger class sizes, a loss of art and music, and our schools becoming test-prep factories.

The current system of Mayoral control has been promoted by those who have no children in the public schools, and no personal stake in the future of our public school system. They do not have the interests of our children at heart.

Thank you for your continued efforts on our behalf, and for a system of school governance that would exemplify partnership rather than dictatorship -- and that would ensure a brighter future for our children and the system as a whole.


Vern Ballard, Ellen Bilofsky, Patricia Connelly, Susan Crawford, Lisa Donlan, John Englert, Rosa Flores, Leonie Haimson, Josh Karan, Benita Lovett-Rivera, Monica Major, Warren Miner, Carla Philip, Charmaine Philip, Ellen Raider, Tamara Rowe and Shino Tanikawa on behalf of the Parent Commission

www.parentcommission.org
___

Organizations which endorsed the recommendations of the Parent Commission:

Black New Yorkers for Educational Excellence; Central Brooklyn Independent Democrats; Class Size Matters; Community Board 1 Manhattan; Community Board 3 Manhattan; Community Board 9 Manhattan; Community Board 12 the Bronx; Community Board 12 Manhattan; Community Education Council District 1; Community Education Council District 2; Community Education Council District 6 ; Community Education Council District 11; Community Education Council District 17; Community Education Council District 20; Community Education Council District 22; District 1 Presidents Council; District 2 Presidents Council; Ethical Action Committee of Brooklyn Society of Ethical Culture; Human Rights Project of Urban Justice Center; Independent Commission on Public Education; New York Coalition for Neighborhood School Control ; Right to Read Project; Second Presbyterian Church (6 W. 96th St.); Stuyvesant High School Parent Association;
Time Out From Testing; 3 R's Coalition

Put the Public Back in Public Education: sign our petition now!

Mayoral control (or what some would call mayoral dictatorship) will either sunset, be renewed or amended in June.

If you believe in accountability and checks and balances...

If you believe in democracy....

If you believe that parents should have a real voice in how our children are educated....

If you believe in billionaire bullies not having autocratic power over our schools....

If you believe that the key to improving the quality of education lies in improving classroom conditions and reducing class size rather than spending more time on testing and test prep....

Then please sign our petition, Put the Public Back in Public Education Now!

What People Are Saying…..About Mayoral Control

What a week! The Education Equality Project convention did not feature an unblemished promotion of Mayoral control as some may have hoped. First came the report of the city's secretive ruling, allowing the Chancellor to raise money for the controversial organization on the taxpayer's dime...

....then came the explosive revelations of massive contributions from lobbyists funnelled through a 501C3 to Sharpton's organization right before the Project was launched.

Then came the convention itself....

Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein and the Rev. Al Sharpton, co-sponsored a conference of the Education Equality Project.... After Education Secretary Arne Duncan spoke enthusiastically about giving mayors of large cities control over their schools, saying that "we need the collective weight of the entire city behind us," many in the audience responded with skeptical boos...

Mr. Sharpton said in an interview on Thursday that he would not support the extension of mayoral control in its current form, suggesting that he agreed with criticism from some corners that the Bloomberg administration has marginalized parents in the last several years. "We feel there needs to be more of a role for parental involvement," Mr. Sharpton said. "We have to find a way to address that. We would not support the legislation as it is now." -- NY Times, April 2, 2009

Members of the Campaign for Better Schools, which is lobbying for significant changes to mayoral control,had deposited their organization's platform, printed on bright yellow paper, on each chair before the event began. Members of the Parent Commission on School Governance, also outspoken critics of Klein's, were also on hand to distribute fliers with their recommendations.-- Gotham Schools, April 2, 2009

As he's done in recent days,Duncan continued touting the benefits of mayoral control of urban school districts ... When he made the same pitch earlier in the day at the National Action Network's meeting in Midtown, it was met with an audible chorus of boos ... --NY Post, April 2, 2009

..... at the [second day of the] Education Equality Project conference..... Mr. Sharpton turned the floor over to Councilman Charles Barron, a frequent critic of New York's education reform efforts. "The mayor is out of control," Mr. Barron bellowed to scattered cheers from the audience of about200. "No one should have that dictatorial, autocratic power." . .. . When the time came for questions, audience members directed their concerns at Mr. Klein and his leadership of the 1.1 million-student school system over the past seven years.They said he had eviscerated the power of local school boards and left parents without a voice in the decision-making process. Some booed the chancellor ... -- NY Times, April 3. 2009

Barron also criticized Klein ... saying that the chancellor lacks any pedagogical expertise. ...Members of a group that pushes for revising the mayoral control law when it comes up for renewal this summer wore pins supporting their position and passed out fliers advertising their views. Several critics also challenged Klein's characterization of improvements made under his watch, saying that students are graduating without being prepared for college and that schools lack black history teaching.

A Harlem father, Vernon Ballard, said he lacks a voice in the school system — and leaders are not held accountable — when the mayor has total control. "There is accountability," Klein replied. "You have the chance to express your voice here." Many members of the audience broke into laughter. ---Gotham Schools, April 3, 2009

What People Are Saying…

About Mayoral Control

“The president of the pro-business Partnership for New York City …. acknowledged that parents are frustrated and want more of a role in the school system…..A group called the Parent Commission …. said the law should be changed so the mayor can't have ultimate power over school policies.” ----WNYC radio, March 20, 2009

“[Comptroller] Thompson also echoed critics of mayoral control in calling for more channels for parental participation, an independent body to audit data and more power for local education councils. “The current administration has sought to avoid debate and public scrutiny,” Mr. Thompson said, “while fundamental decisions regarding education reform have been made by executives with very little education background.”

As the day progressed, city officials sparred with lawmakers over test scores, class size, test preparation and no-bid contracts. Parents booed, hissed and applauded, flashing signs and passing out pamphlets… Laura Acosta, an organizer for Learn NY ... said that every parent she had spoken with agreed that parents should have more of a voice in education decisions.” –NY Times, March 21, 2009

“Hundreds of parents and community leaders turned out for the last state Assembly hearing about mayoral control over city schools. …Patricia Connelly, of a group called the Parent Commission, told lawmakers the Department of Education routinely makes decisions about opening and closing schools without community involvement. CONNELLY: The parent commission rejects the condescending autocracy that currently masquerades as parent engagement. …: Connelly's group called for a partnership with the mayor, by diluting his power over an existing panel on education policy.”- WNYC radio, March 21, 2009

“The strong thrust of Friday’s hearing, the last of five that have taken Assembly members on a tour through the boroughs, was that lawmakers are not happy with the system they created. Some have become even less happy during the hearings in every borough over the last few months… Lawmakers repeatedly raised concerns that charter schools are causing a “two-tiered system” where some students get excellent educations while others languish in failing schools.” – Gotham Schools, March 23, 2009

About recent poll results

“Chancellor Klein’s approval rating continues to fall – 7 points in the last month alone. And even though he often claims to be a civil rights hero, his disapproval ratings are highest among blacks and Hispanics.” – NYC Public School parents, March 24, 2009

“One person who is not particularly popular, though, is Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein, who is Mr. Bloomberg’s point man on the issue of mayoral control of the schools. Voters approve his job performance by 37 percent to 35 percent, but that figure has slipped several percentage points over the last few months.” – NY Times City Room, March 24, 2009

“Approval for how Mayor Bloomberg is handling the public schools has also dropped, to 47 percent from 50 percent a month ago, giving him the lowest approval rating on his education efforts since May 2003. Just 46 percent of New Yorkers said they thought the mayor’s takeover of the public schools has been a success. Public school parents rated the mayor the worst: Just 41 percent of them said they approved of the job he’s doing, and 54 percent said they disapproved.” – Gotham Schools, March 24, 2009

“When voters were asked if the mayor should share power over the schools with the City Council… 53 percent support joint authority, and 37 percent don't...”-New York Post, March 25, 2009

About DOE spending practices

“A cost-cutting plan to close city day-care center classrooms will actually cost taxpayers almost $7 million, according to insiders and a Daily News analysis…. insiders say the average cost to the city for each kindergartner in public school is about $4,000. Tack on $2,800 apiece for after-school care, and the tab for 3,200 kids comes to $21.7 million. …

Evelyn Segura's 4-year-old daughter Ashley Nicole Triz will have to leave the Williamsbridge NAACP day care in the Bronx to attend Public School 21, a school that buses its kindergartners to other schools because it is overcrowded. "My daughter is very happy where she is now," said Segura, 40. "With the economy today, I don't understand why this is happening." -- Daily News, March 26, 2009

“City Councilman Bill DeBlasio released a report accusing the education department of wasteful spending, especially on testing.... DEBLASIO: We're going far beyond the federal requirements and the basics and spending a lot more on additional testing and pre-testing that we don't need in the middle of a fiscal crisis…. DeBlasio singled out an $80 million computer network for tracking data, and more than $20 million a year in benchmark testing. He also complained about the department's $1.3 million communications budget.” .- WNYC radio, March 26, 2009

About 2,000 teaching jobs could be cut if the state denies the city its fair share of federal stimulus funding, Schools Chancellor Joel Klein warned Thursday….Teachers union chief Randi Weingarten railed against the suggestion that cutting teachers and school staff is a necessary evil. "We need to cut things that ... aren't core," she said. – Daily News, March 27, 2009

On Charter schools and the lack of community input on their siting

The biggest uproar has been sparked by DOE's aggressive policy of putting new charters in existing public schools without seeking parent approval. "It's the same in every neighborhood," said Monica Major, president of the Community Education Council in District 11 in the Bronx. "The DOE just tells you they're putting a new charter in your building and you have to force them to even have a conversation about it." ….

Public school parent leaders say they don't oppose charters. They just want the DOE to abide by state law and consider the views of the local Community Education Councils, the successors to the old community school districts, before making those decisions. "They continually create this atmosphere of animosity toward parents," Major said. That's why she joined the Parent Commission on School Governance, a volunteer group that just released a proposal to sharply curb mayoral control of the schools. -- Daily News, March 24, 2009

The United Federation of Teachers and the New York Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit Tuesday charging that the city’s Department of Education violated state law by moving to replace traditional public schools with charter schools without proper consultation of neighborhood school boards….The lawsuit accuses the department of “utilizing its powers over school creation to alter attendance zones unilaterally without the consent or involvement of the people the community school serves,” and adds that it “continues to act by fiat.”…

Since the mayoral takeover, the local school boards have declined in influence, with zoning among their few remaining powers. “This is our last shred of authority,” noted Jennifer Freeman, a member of the education council that represents much of Harlem, and a plaintiff in the suit. – NY Times, March 25, 2009