Mayoral Control of Our Children’s Education – A Delicate Balance
NY1 reported the following:
“Mayor Michael Bloomberg praised the city’s school performance rates Monday, March 2, 2009, saying a record number of schools have been removed from the registration review list.
This year, there are only 20 city schools on the Education Department’s annual SURR list — that’s 12 fewer schools than last year.
The mayor says 77 city schools were under registration review by the state when his administration first took control of city schools.
School Chancellor Joel Klein says this is the fewest number of schools added to the list since the beginning of the SURR program in 1989.”
To backtrack a bit about this subject, the State Legislature handed over the control of New York City Schools to the Office of the Mayor in 2002 in hopes of reforming the public schools in the city, albeit, the mandate was only for seven years expiring this June.
It is indisputable that there have been positive results after this move to centralize the administration of city schools under one office. However, I am concerned that giving any one person (or office) the full authority to appoint the Commissioner of the Department of Education undermines the principle of check and balance. I suggest that appointees be confirmed in a hearing by the City Council Members much like Presidential Cabinet Appointees are screened and confirmed by the Members of the US Senate.
