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New York City
May 2003

The Next Battle in the War Over School Reform

The sniping has begun. Both sides are rolling out their think tanks and their big guns. Coalitions are forming. The next war in the Middle East? No, the next battle in the war over control of New York City’s public schools. You thought that war was over—that Mayor Bloomberg won when he got the New York State Legislature to give him control of the schools. Hardly. What the lords have given, the lords can take away.

Last year, the Mayor succeeded in persuading the State Legislature to eliminate the Board of Education and make the schools into a mayoralty agency. The support of the UFT was crucial in gaining the necessary votes in Albany. The UFT went along because the Mayor would not grant them the contract they needed to bring home to their rank-and-file (with significant salary increases) unless the UFT supported his takeover. This resulted in a temporary truce between the Union and the Mayor. Inevitably that truce was doomed to end when the new contract negotiation started, and, when the pressure of a huge budget deficit required layoffs and Union givebacks.

But that is only the tip of the iceberg. No one believed the Mayor was really going to take charge so completely, that he was going to shake up the system so thoroughly. When Bloomberg announced his reorganization plan everything changed. Local school boürds were relieved of authority—soon to be superseded by ten instructional districts. District Superintendents would either be moved up or phased out at the will of the Schools Chancellor. Administrative staffs were downsized. Curriculum changes were to be instituted and plans for restructuring the Special Education program announced. Long entrenched bureaucracies were threatened, jobs were at stake. The new organization deprived the State Legislators and the City Council Members of influence over local education policy, and even worse, eliminated political patronage jobs at the local school boards. The members of the local school boards were largely silenced, and the opportunity for local politicians to use these boards as power bases gone.

So now the next battle of the war begins. Will the Mayor succeed in consolidating his gains? Will the local politicians, allied with the teachers and supervisors unions, regain control? You won’t see this war on CNN, but it will be just as hard fought as the War in Iraq. And, as usual, the real danger is to the children and their parents. In the long run the battle will be for public support, and the public will have to choose sides. I don’t know whether the mayor’s reorganization will work, but it’s worth a try. I do know that a return to the status quo would be a disaster. The mayor’s plans need some revision. He needs to provide greater mechanism for dissent and the opportunity for real parental input. He needs to offer transparency to the City Council so they can exercise some oversight. With these exceptions, I support the Mayor’s reorganization plans.

If Mayor Bloomberg hasn’t learned yet that being the CEO of New York City is a lot different from being the CEO of a large corporation he is about to receive an education. The budget will be held as ransom. Whispering campaigns will begin about senior stýff members. Demonstrations will be organized. The Mayor will have to show that he can be as tough as his opponents and that he cares enough about the schools to risk his political career. If it wasn’t for the collateral damage this battle might be worth watching. #

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