Mayoral control has been little more than a mechanism to allow Mayor Bloomberg to outsource large aspects of public education to private companies, many of which are connected with buddies of his. Some of us remember the huge admissions fiasco caused by a company in Pennsylvania the mayor outsourced Kindergarten admissions to and the bungled it. Admissions, more and more standardized testing, even entire Charter Schools all outsourced...mayoral control has been synonymous with privatization and cronyism. And it has led to LARGER class sizes, horrendous middle school applications processes, and borderline fraudulent claims of test improvements conveniently ignoring major changes in how the tests were done.

I have never supported mayoral control and have always been somewhat surprised at the lapdog nature of politicians in NYC towards Mayor Bloomberg's dictatorial methods, culminating in his legislative dismissal (with the full cooperation of his personal lapdog Christine Quinn) of voter imposed term limits for Bloomberg's personal desire to have a third term.

Currently, according to a recent Quinnipiac poll, only 18% of New Yorkers want mayoral control.

So, all that means I am happy to see an attempt to end mayoral control. From the New York City Parents Union:

Join State Assemblyman David Weprin, State Senator Velmanette Montgomery And New York City Parents Union

At A Press Conference Introducing Legislation To End Mayoral Control of NYC Schools

State Assemblyman David Weprin and State Senator Velmanette Montgomery have introduced legislation (Bill #: S1406) in their respective chambers to correct mayoral control and restore balance, professionalism, and parental input to the governance of the New York City public school system. The New York City Parents Union has been actively lobbying in Albany and working closely with Senator Montgomery for one year on legislation to empower parents and give us an authoritative voice in our public schools. These bills and others will finally put the public back in public education. Additional legislation introduced include abolishing the Chancellor waiver (Bill #: S1408) and requiring the Board of Regents to meet twice a year in New York City (Bill #: S1411).

If you are fed up with having no voice in your schools and communities, please join us and speak out about your experience with the rubber stamp Panel for Educational Policy.

WHO: State Senator Velmanette Montgomery
State Assemblyman David I. Weprin
Representatives from UFT
Representatives from the New York City Parents Union
New York City school students and parents
Other invited elected officials

WHAT: Introduction of Bills to End Mayoral Control

WHERE: City Hall steps, Lower Manhattan

WHEN: Sunday, February 3, 2013, 1PM

Below is a breakdown of the proposed new Board of Education with real stakeholders - we, the parents.

The Board of Education would continue to have 13 members.
· Each Boro President would continue to appoint 1 member.
o Each member would have to have a child in the NYC public school system.

· The City Council would appoint 4 members.
o One of these would be a representative of a college or university.
o One would be a member of a parent’s organization.
o One would be a member of a Parent’s Educational Council.
o One member to be appointed at large.

· The Mayor would appoint 4 members.
o Each member would have to be a resident of New York City
o At least one appointee would have to have a child in the NYC public school system.

More information at New York City Parents Union

Velmanette Montgomery's State Senate Website

Assemblyman David Weprin's website

This last weekend Joy and I attended two events of political interest to New York. First I want to mention that on Saturday Joy participated in the 3rd annual Center for Anti-Violence Education's Punch-a-thon held in a very wet Grand Army Plaza entrance to Prospect Park. The Center for Anti-Violence Education (CAE) teaches women, children, teens, and LGBT individuals verbal and physical strategies to protect themselves and break cycles of violence in their lives and communities. CAE has a commitment to serving low-income families and offer our violence-prevention courses on a sliding fee scale. Courses for survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault are free of charge, and free childcare is available at all classes. The annual Punch-a-thon raises money to pay for self-defense and violence-prevention courses to those who can't afford it. I sponsored my wife in this event and she, like most of the participants, did 1000 punches. In all the event raised $5000 to date with more hopefully coming in. The political angle was that several elected officials had promised to show up.  read more »

[I hope this post proves interesting. It was written by Edwize blogger natbell and crossposted from Edwize.]

The UFT has begun gathering input from the community about mayoral control of city schools and what it has meant for the city’s 1.1 million school children. The law that temporarily authorized centralization of the system has been in place for six years, and is scheduled to sunset in 2009.

A union task force is holding hearings in each of the five boroughs, where parents, community members and other stakeholders are evaluating whether the law should be continued, modified in some way, or allowed to expire. The community’s input will help the union develop its own position on the law.  read more »