Here’s the latest update on a story I’ve been following…

But first, a quick review: The 2002 law granting Mayor Bloomberg complete control over New York City Schools was set to expire on June 30th, and the legislature was in the process of reviewing its options and deciding how to proceed. It could renew mayoral control exactly as is; keep some parts of the law but changed others; let the law expire and revert to the old system of putting power in the hands of community school boards overseen by a central school board; or extend the law for one year until a new mayor is elected and revisit the issue then.

And now back to the update (thanks to Gotham Schools and the New York Times):

On Sunday June 14, New York State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver introduced a bill to extend the mayoral control law, and proposed certain amendments. Among them are suggested changes to be made to the Panel For Educational Policy [PEP] which was originally created to check and balance the mayor’s power, but instead ended up rubber stamping all his decisions. The board will now elect its own chairman (a position formerly filled by the chancellor), and will have greater responsibility and authority (such as to approve no-bid contracts and those that exceed $1 million). The mayor will still be able to appoint eight members to the 13-member board, but two of his appointees now have to be parents of children in public schools. There will be no fixed terms for appointees.

The city’s 32 district superintendents will be required to maintain local offices whose purpose will be to handle parents’ comments and complaints.

And in the name of greater transparency, the city comptroller and Independent Budget Office will be able to audit the Department of Education, although since the DOE is not a city agency, it will not be subject to the same degree of oversight as other agencies are.

I just checked in with Gotham Schools for more recent news, and according to their sources in Albany, the Assembly’s education committee passed Speaker Sheldon Silver’s bill with 24 favorable votes (the committee has 29 members). The bill was then pushed through the ways and means committee this afternoon, with no discussion, and will move to the Assembly floor for a vote tomorrow.

So the big question is: Do the new features of the extended mayoral control law provide enough of a check on the mayor’s power? Will parents and community members really have more of a say in the running of their schools? I guess that depends on who you ask. Mayor Bloomberg has already given the bill his stamp of approval, which if you ask me, isn’t a good sign. (Mayor Bloomberg doesn’t seem to  like it when limits are placed on his power, as evidenced by the Monday Night Massacre in 2004 when his plan to hold back third graders who failed standardized tests was on the Panel’s voting agenda, and he forced three dissenting members to resign prior to the meeting.)

Many parent activists are expressing concern and frustration regarding the proposed bill which they think still gives the mayor too much power over their schools. Earlier today, I spoke with Shomwa Shampanade, spokesperson for the Campaign for Better Schools which is a coalition of 25 community groups trying to balance the mayor’s power by increasing parental and community involvement. He said: “There are some good things in the proposed bill but unfortunately it maintains the rubber stamp of the PEP.” (For more details on the Campaign’s position, click here.)

I agree. While I think this newer version of the mayoral control law takes steps in the right direction and is an improvement over its predecessor, it doesn’t seem to go far enough. If the mayor’s appointees don’t have fixed terms, and can be dismissed at any time, what are the chances that they will ever oppose him? Further, as it stands now, I don’t think the bill opens the door for enough parental and community participation.

To read the bill itself, click here. Then feel free to let me know what you think.

Photo: jimbowen0306’s flickr photostream/ Creative Commons