I watched much of the March 4 State Legislature Joint Public Hearings on Mayoral control of the NYC public schools. The law that gives the mayor full authority sunsets in June. Mayor Eric Adams is pushing for a four-year renewal. He and Chancellor David Banks testified in front of the Legislature who didn't seem overly impressed. Norm Scott has an analysis up at EdNotes.
Norm cites parent Activist/Class Size Matters leader Leonie Haimson who pointed out the fatal flaw in the Adams-Banks argument at her blog:
Another problem that both Mayor Adams and Chancellor Banks encountered is a glaring contradiction in their rhetoric. Both repeated their now-familiar refrain about how terrible our schools are, especially for Black and brown kids. But of course, if true, this failure persists after twenty years of mayoral control - the very system that they claim is necessary to solve the problem.
Banks tried to get around this evident contradiction, by testifying that all the deficiencies exhibited by our schools are the result of the system that earlier prevailed, more than twenty years ago: "We are still dealing with the remnants of the past world before Mayoral Accountability was adopted. Corruption, patronage, and inequity ruled the day, and our students suffered greatly. That is evident in some of the glaring disparate outcomes we still see, especially for communities of color."
Yet this argument didn't seem to be particularly convincing to the legislators. In fact, in the first five hours or so of the hearings, while I was still watching, only one of them expressed strong support for continuing the current system for another four years, Senator Luis Sepulveda from the Bronx. A four year extension is what Gov. Hochul has proposed and of course Adams and Banks would prefer: The attitude of the other legislators seemed to range from slight skepticism to clear opposition, at least during the portion of the hearings that I was able to observe.
Mayoral control might not sail through the Legislature in the April budget bills where most Albany legislation is passed but may have to wait until June. Mayoral control was not included in the one-house budget resolutions.
POLITICO was the first to report the news on Friday ahead of the official release of one-house budget resolutions. The lack of enthusiasm from the Legislature came despite the backing of Gov. Kathy Hochul, who has proposed a four-year extension that would span Adams’ entire term.
It represents perhaps the widest gulf as far as education budget priorities between legislators and Hochul, who have enjoyed a far better relationship than lawmakers did with former Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
That doesn’t necessarily preclude the possibility that it could still end up in final budget negotiations, but it’s a devastating blow to the Albany agenda of Adams, who had been pushing for another extension of mayoral control.
We need to bring democracy to the schools by ending mayoral control of our schools. Chicago just did that. The UFT's position is to tweak it a bit. Did Michael Mulgrew ask you how you feel about mayoral control? I don't think so. That is why we also must democratize our Union so it isn't just one person talking through most UFT meetings. We'll have more on that soon. Maybe we can end mayoral control of the schools and Mulgrew control of the UFT.
33 comments:
Mulgrew already stated that he approves of mayoral control as long as there are tweaks to it. Once again, He can not be trusted.
Bloomberg opened up the can of worms and now we cannot put the worms back into the bottle on mayoral control. Bloomberg showed who he really is when we all watched the television debate for the Presidency. Bloomberg thought he was going to pull a NYC move on America but not to be.
I mean did anyone see the real Bloomberg in those Presidential debates? I wondered while I was watching the debates and how Mikey was making a fool of himself I was thinking how lucky this guy really got with all the money that came his way. Look at all the so called small school initiative. This has been a complete bust - an idea that was championed by non other than Bill Gates who then retracted and said that "small schools" do not work.
But too late Bloomberg already did the damage to NYC schools. Boy would it be great to have all the large comprehensive schools back again. The Clinton HS, Bayside HS, Flushing HS, Walton HS Lehman HS, Jamaica HS, Columbus HS, Stevenson HS, and all the other once great stand alone comprehensive schools offering students a plethora of choices from classes to after school activities all gone because of mayoral control and unfortunately it went by the name of bloomberg.
I was so scared that Bloomberg was going to go against Trump. I told myself if this were to happen, I would have voted for Trump. That's how much I hated Bloomberg. Don't forget Bloomberg also started the ATR pool and got rid of Seniority rights too.
Also, we would have back all the money that is wasted managing several minischools within those large high schools. If only educators who actually do the job ran the system.
As you blame Bloomberg for all the problems (and I'm not saying you are wrong) don't forget to add Randi and Mikey into the mix of players.
@5:57 I’m scared of voters like you . Would rather have any democratic candidate over a Republican, the left have move so far away from fundamentals . Can we just have less government control in general. We had so many great candidates like Eterno but Mulgrew continues to sit in power . He is backed by Dems, they own the system
Bloomberg was a democrat in name only. He still had republican views. Bloomberg would have run this country into the ground and that would be the end of public schools and teachers would quit in droves. Remember he said teachers should have 50 students in class.
Just a quick note to Anonymous @ 11:47:00 AM
You're 100% right about Bloomberg's destruction of some great schools; but just for the record, Bayside HS and Flushing HS still stand. Flushing has some co-located nonsense in their building but Bayside is a stand-alone these days (along with Cardozo, Lewis, Forest Hills, John Adams, John Bowne and Hillcrest out Queens way.
Brooklyn still has a number of large schools too: Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Dewey, Midwood, and New Utrecht. Also Staten Island has Tottenville, New Dorp and Susan Wagner. Bronx and Manhattan, however, were depleted of Big High Schools.
Wow I did not realize that those schools survived the bloomberg klein destruction! Good for them. I was at the stevenson campus last week and its amazing how each floor is a different color for each school and some floors have two schools on the same floor! As they say you cannot make this crap up.
But Adams is the first black mayor to have control. He has deep concern for the black and brown students he speaks of. Why do you doubt him? Do you really think a black mayor would sell out black kids? Check your white privileged and show Adams respect. Every decision he makes will be in the best interest of these students. Guaranteed.
Thank goodness we have medical coverage that includes psychotropic medications. Some folks really need to take advantage.
Sorry I am a bit late posting comments. I missed a few of them today in my inbox.
3:45 wtf?
Yes Adams is the first mayor to have control but one aspect of white supremacy is one person having control and dictating everything, so technically if Adams wants mayoral control, he is contradicting himself. Also about white privilege, does anybody find it interesting that we are told to be less white as educators yet we have to follow a teaching rubric made by a white woman?
3:45 Sorry but I have lost all faith in any of the politicians. Look how we get Cuomo back again in the Govs office. Let us all remember it was Cuomo who sold out to the charter schools and ms. eva moskowitch.
Now today NYC has to pay the rent for ALL charter schools in NYC if they cannot squeeze them into our school buildings. Cuomo sold out the UFT big time for tons of cash from organizations like students first - a corrupt billionaire funded fake organization - all so eager to take down public education.
So, for Adams the jury is still out but don't expect much because like I said all politicians are the same.
So either Adams is a white supremacist or you’re just a bunch of racists who don’t want a black man to have power. I think you’re the racists not Adams. You just can’t stand to see a black man take charge.
1:48: I have no problem with a black mayor or black president. The more people of color in office, the better. I think you are missing the point. It's hypocritical to tell educators to be less white when he is following a white supremacist ideal by wanting Mayoral control. Practice what you preach.
@845 am... before you share your thoughts on something maybe you should check for accuracy. I am still trying to locate a definition of white supremacy that says "one person" having control and dictating everything. Anyway what does race have to do with the topic?
3:24: Authoritarianism and Dominance are characteristics of white supremacy. What do you think the word control means? Adams keeps saying Mayoral control. Why do you think so many people thought Trump was a white supremist? I was only responding to previous blog. I didn't say race had anything to do with the topic, but every topic lately seems to go back to race.
Please explanation how that is a white supremacist ideal? How does his beautiful color figure into this discussion.
@7:14 pm go back to read what you wrote.
I'm not going to argue this anymore because no matter what I say or who I cite, you are going to believe what you are going to believe. I'll find some people that will agree with me and some that won't agree. There never has been a clear cut definition of what White Supremacy is. It's more connotative than denotative, so I'll leave it at that. SO we can agree to disagree. You believe what you want and I'll believe what I want.
10:02 No, it's quite clear.
https://www.adl.org/resources/glossary-terms/white-supremacy
12:30: Again only one source.
Oh my @10:02. There is a definition for the term. However you can believe whatever you'd like.
5:34 pick your magic number
where's your source 5:34? Lemme guess - Tucker Carlson.
Authoritarianism and dominance are being practiced by Adams. So one can argue Adams is the white man’s bitch because he’s doing their bidding. His beautiful color is outshined by being on the side of authoritarianism. He might as well be the same color as DeBlasio or Bloomberg. He wants authoritarian control just like they did. So either he’s exerting his black supremacy as the black man in charge who wants total control or he’s the water carrier for white supremacy. Either way he’s a bad guy if you don’t like authoritarianism in any way, shape, form or color. If you enjoy authoritarianism, he’s your man regardless of his color. If you enjoyed the authoritarianism of mandates but fear the authoritarianism of mayoral control and other things, well….. it’s too late to lock the barn door. The authoritarians have already escaped and they will continue to wreak havoc until we all agree all authoritarianism is unAmerican and stop empowering the authoritarians. When someone has his boot on your neck do you really care what color person or political party the boot belongs to? I sure don’t. But some of you clearly do. And that makes you bad guys too. Time will tell if Adams is like Biden, like Hochul… just another piece of shit scumbag wearing the boots. Personally I no longer give a shit. I’ll spend my retirement hunting and growing food in my garden and greenhouse and watching the authoritarianism take over. I think it’s inevitable because too many Americans love it when their favored authoritarian has their boot on the other side’s neck. You’re all despicable to me. Left or right. If you’ve encouraged restricting freedom you deserve the next boot on your neck.
534. how many would like? or you just wanna play games?
@9:41 am...are you Thursday 345 pm? I'm responding to that ANONYMOUS poster. Periodt. That poster introduced RACE. Why? Only that poster knows why. This country is over 200 years old. Same shit. Different day. All of the sudden folks wanna be concerned about authoritarians. Puhlese. Stick to the topic James posted or am I being an authoritarian?
P.S. my above 12:36pm response is also in response to Friday 8:45 am comment. Finally as much aa often as you're posting, you sure sound as if you give a lot of shit. Just saying.
Here is a source that lists the characteristics of white supremacy: Pay attention to the sections: One right way, power hoarding and I'm the only one: Seems like characteristics of mayoral control to me, but again it's a matter of opinion.
https://www.uuare.org/cwsc/
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