Results tagged “mayoralcontrol”

The Bloomberg administration is catching some flak for tipping their hand and revealing big raises coming to teachers, both for putting for such a generous offer as payback politics and letting the teachers' union know what was coming their way before negotiations even began. The Post revealed that Labor Commissioner James Hanley admitted that 8 percent pay raises for teachers have already been set aside for the next two years in recent testimony before an arbitration panel. A former Koch official said that letting the cat out of the bag was a no-no, telling the paper, "Every labor leader knows that the money is hidden somewhere in the budget and they don't know how much money. Generally, only the most trusted people in the budget know where the money is squirreled away." Others criticized how high the raises are despite the city's fiscal crisis and low inflation—starting salaries now heading up to just under $50K and veteran teachers able to make up to $108K. Many believe the high offer coming to the United Federation Teachers might be payback for changing positions and supporting mayoral control of schools and city pension reforms.

Now that the State Senate has adjourned for summer vacation, Mayor Bloomberg is participating in the time honored tradition of talking smack as soon as someone has left the room. On his weekly radio show yesterday, Bloomberg went off about the fact that the senators left Albany without addressing the issue of mayoral control of the schools, now back with the re-formed Board of Ed until senators return in September. Bloomberg said, "The only thing I can think of is they want to ruin the schools." He also suggested that Governor Paterson "send the state troopers to drag them back" to Albany and added, "Giving them the summer off is, as we say in Gallic (sic), 'Meshughena.'" Senator Bill Perkins referred to the mayor's rant as a "tantrum" and Senator Thomas Duane added that "the threat of troopers knocking on the door" was not the best way to coerce legislators into a vote. A spokesman for Paterson said the governor had no plans to call in state troopers to resolve the matter.

Mayor Bloomberg is unhappy that the State Senate Democrats are stalling a vote on whether to continue mayoral control of the NYC public school system and he's ratcheting up the rhetoric. His spokesman tells the Post that the Senators are essentially breaking their promise to the public: "The pledge by the Senate leadership to allow a floor vote on the bill should be honored." The Senate Democrats claim that they would be fine with voting on the bill—as long as it has some amendments, like involving parents more. Sen. Eric Schneiderman (D-Manhattan/Bronx) tells the NY Times, "If the mayor’s people would just sit down at a table for an hour with a pencil and our amendments, this would all be over." The Daily News' editorial from Tuesday said there doesn't need to be amendments: "The Assembly...held public hearings in every borough and took voluminous testimony before fashioning a school governance bill. In contrast, the Senate held not a single official hearing on how the schools should be run..."

According to the Daily News, Assembly Leader Sheldon Silver "unveiled a proposal to renew mayoral control over the schools before a largely skeptical group of fellow Democrats." The Legislature is set to decide whether Mayor Bloomberg can continue mayoral oversight of the public school system, which is the country's largest. Many lawmakers are skeptical because mayoral control leaves little opportunity for parents and community members to offer their insights. The News explains Silver's plan still gives the mayor "control of the 13-member Panel for Educational Policy, but at least two of his eight appointments would have to be parents of city schoolchildren... The schools chancellor would no longer be chairman of the body and would be required to visit each school district every two years. The chairman would be voted on by panel members. The panel, which would be required to meet once a month and in each borough at least once a year, would vote on all policy decisions, capital spending plans and budgets," according to sources. Previously, PolitickerNY has suggested that Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith, who supports mayoral control, could side with Republicans in order to pass it.

With the fate of mayoral control of public schools up to Albany, the NY Times looks at the Department of Education's shift of putting younger principals in charge of schools: "Analysis by The New York Times of the city’s signature report-card system shows that schools run by graduates of the celebrated New York City Leadership Academy — which the mayor created and helped raise more than $80 million for — have not done as well as those led by experienced principals or new principals who came through traditional routes." Additionally, the Times finds that Bloomberg administration's changes of "opening hundreds of new schools and raising salaries have swelled the principals’ payroll 43 percent after adjusting for inflation." Some veteran principals like the changes, which include overseeing smaller student populations—one said that before "You were the figurehead as a principal, but the actual power was in the superintendent’s office"—but another noted her exhaustion, “You’re a teacher, you’re Judge Judy, you’re a mother, you’re a father, you’re a pastor, you’re a therapist, you’re a nurse, you’re a social worker. You’re a curriculum planner, you’re a data gatherer, you’re a budget scheduler, you’re a vision spreader.”

The NY Times reports, "A parent council in Manhattan and the city’s teachers’ union sued the Department of Education on Monday, contending that the department had not adequately consulted with the council in deciding which schools to close and in altering school boundaries." While the community education councils—which include parents of students—are supposed to be have power over school zoning, District 2's council (representing the East Side and Lower Manhattan; there are 32 districts total) contends that the DOE has been unresponsive to their concerns. Council president Rebecca Daniels tells the Times, "We were trying very hard and we just weren’t getting the kind of communication we needed. The reporting to parents and hearing their feedback was just not happening." She blames mayoral control for squeezing parents out of the equation—and leaving them and their children helpless when schools close. The state is in the process of determining whether to continue mayoral control; a Times editorial backed continuing mayoral control of schools, but noted, "Some fine-tuning aimed at giving parents and communities more access is in order."

As NYC officials attempt to convince Albany that mayoral control of the public school system is the way to continue (while the teachers union disagrees), Mayor Bloomberg said on his radio program yesterday that he was confident the Legislature would pass reauthorize mayoral control. And if not, "I think that there'd be riots in the streets, given what's the improvement. I mean, parents have choices. For the first time we're funding all the schools equally.... . If you go back and look, of all of the reforms that have got us 20% greater math scores, 20% greater English scores, 20% greater graduation rates, 20% less crime, all of these things, not one of them would have been done by the old Board of Ed. The old Board of Ed was totally dysfunctional. It was political patronage. It was pay-to-play kind of politics." One critic told the Post, "Bloomberg's bizarre comment only serves to underscore how completely out of touch he is with what public-school parents face every day."