|
1/22/02 – New York City's new mayor, Michael R. Bloomberg, says he wants to eliminate the Board of Education.
Former Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani lobbied unsuccessfully for mayoral control of the school system throughout his eight-year tenure.
Gov. George E. Pataki supports Bloomberg's proposal. He announced a plan Jan. 9 to have mayors control the school systems in Yonkers, Syracuse Rochester, and Buffalo, as well as New York City.
Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver says he's going to keep an "open mind" about Bloomberg's idea.
Assemblyman Steven Sanders, the Manhattan Democrat who heads the Assembly Education Committee, says he does not support exclusive mayoral authority and doubts it will happen.
Other possibilities for revamping the management of New York's public schools include expanding the seven-member board but allowing the mayor to appoint most of the members. Currently, the mayor appoints two members, and the other five are selected by the borough presidents.
Another option is to make the board financially independent, with its own taxing authority.
School Chancellor Harold Levy's contract expires in July, as do the terms of all seven board members.
Jerry Cammarata, a board member appointed by the Staten Island borough president, supports Bloomberg's plan. "What we need to do is abolish the Board of Education as it exists now. . . . Then it will be up to the mayor to decide how that structure will be recreated," says Cammarata, who also serves as the mayor's commissioner for youth and community development.
Board member Irving Hamer Jr. also believes the board of education should be restructured but says, "I definitely believe it should not be turned over to the mayor." He says the board "should function less as a brass-knuckle political dispute resolution entity and more as a professional center of educational excellence, advocacy, and pedagogical, moral, and intellectual leadership."
"A restructured board would have the ability to engage in long-term strategic policy planning and be allowed to resume one of its primary functions: stimulating and maintaining meaningful public engagement," he says.
According to Deputy Mayor for Policy Dennis Walcott, Bloomberg also wants to do away with the city's 32 community school boards. "In the last school elections, 97 percent of the people didn't participate. And some school districts could not field enough candidates," he says.
Sharon Maurer, president of Community School Board 26 in Queens, says the boards serve an important community function, by giving parents a voice in district decision making.
The city faces an estimated budget shortfall of $4 billion, and Levy announced a budget proposal that would cut $600 million from the 2002-03 board of education budget.
Top of Page
| Reproduced with permission from the Jan. 22, 2002, issue of School Board News. Copyright © 2002, National School Boards Association. Opinions expressed in this newspaper do not necessarily reflect positions of NSBA. This article may be printed out and photocopied for individual or educational use, provided this copyright notice appears on each copy. This article may not be otherwise transmitted or reproduced in print or electronic form without the consent of the Publisher. For more information, call (703) 838-6789. | |