NEW YORK—Amidst shouts of “Bloomberg let us in” and “parents need their voice,” Democratic state senators and parent and teacher organizations challenged the mayoral control of the city’s education system at City Hall on Thursday.
A hundred-strong group of parents and teachers accompanied by a handful of state senators stood with banners rallying for parental participation in making decisions in the city education system.
“New York needs a new school governance plan that truly empowers parents and delivers the highest level of education possible to New York’s more than 1.1 million public school children,” said Senator Hiram Monserrate (D-Corona).
Mayoral control puts the Department of Education in charge of all aspects of the city’s public education system—from allocating funds to deciding curricula.
A renewal of the 2002 mayoral control law did not pass last month due to disagreements between Democrats and Republicans in the Senate. As a result, the education governance system has reverted from the Department of Education model back to the old model, where the mayor shares control of the education system with a seven-person Board of Education and 32 locally elected school boards.
The teacher’s union, officially known as the United Federation of Teachers (UFT), supports the mayoral control bill passed in June in the Assembly, which would extend mayoral control and “add a stronger component for parental involvement,” said Ron Davis, UFT spokesperson in a phone interview.
Those opposed to mayoral control were concerned about the $342.5 million worth of no-bid contracts—awarded to a single company without competition—that go to corporations citizens are not aware of.
The Department of Education gave a $95 million contract to a company that has only a post office box in Florida, said Senate Majority Leader Pedro Espada.
Senator Eric Adams expanded that, “Health care and education are the two largest allocation of state dollars,” and that in the case of education, one man—the Chancellor of the Department of Education—has the authority to do so.
Senator Carl Kruger (D-Brooklyn) called the Department of Education a “cold and dark place” for its lack of transparency in the case of no-bid contracts.
Ann Forte, spokesperson for the Department of Education said in a phone interview that the, “Numbers are more accessible [than they were before] and all school budgets are online,” and that how schools are funded and their expenditure are all posted on the internet available to any member of the public.
Parents at City Hall also raised concerns about mayoral control.
Monica Harris, PTA president of an elementary school in District One where she has a 9-year-old daughter, said that mayoral control puts emphasis on quantity (in the growth statistics of schools) and less on the quality of education children are getting. Principals want to secure their jobs, so they are more likely to falsely rate children’s performance at the beginning of the year so that it seems there is great improvement at the end of the year, she said.
“Parent education is very important,” said Harris, who added that parents are not empowered to participate in their children’s education and form a “cohesive bond” with teachers.
Brian Jones, who has been a teacher in Harlem for six years, said that the states’ allocation of funding to create and remodel charter schools is an attempt to privatize education. He is a member of the Grassroots Education Movement (GEM), which seeks to “save our schools from privatization,” said a flier.
Ron Davis of the UFT denied the threat of privatization posed by charter schools by saying that charter schools are public schools that have specialized programs.
A hundred-strong group of parents and teachers accompanied by a handful of state senators stood with banners rallying for parental participation in making decisions in the city education system.
“New York needs a new school governance plan that truly empowers parents and delivers the highest level of education possible to New York’s more than 1.1 million public school children,” said Senator Hiram Monserrate (D-Corona).
Mayoral control puts the Department of Education in charge of all aspects of the city’s public education system—from allocating funds to deciding curricula.
A renewal of the 2002 mayoral control law did not pass last month due to disagreements between Democrats and Republicans in the Senate. As a result, the education governance system has reverted from the Department of Education model back to the old model, where the mayor shares control of the education system with a seven-person Board of Education and 32 locally elected school boards.
The teacher’s union, officially known as the United Federation of Teachers (UFT), supports the mayoral control bill passed in June in the Assembly, which would extend mayoral control and “add a stronger component for parental involvement,” said Ron Davis, UFT spokesperson in a phone interview.
Those opposed to mayoral control were concerned about the $342.5 million worth of no-bid contracts—awarded to a single company without competition—that go to corporations citizens are not aware of.
The Department of Education gave a $95 million contract to a company that has only a post office box in Florida, said Senate Majority Leader Pedro Espada.
Senator Eric Adams expanded that, “Health care and education are the two largest allocation of state dollars,” and that in the case of education, one man—the Chancellor of the Department of Education—has the authority to do so.
Senator Carl Kruger (D-Brooklyn) called the Department of Education a “cold and dark place” for its lack of transparency in the case of no-bid contracts.
Ann Forte, spokesperson for the Department of Education said in a phone interview that the, “Numbers are more accessible [than they were before] and all school budgets are online,” and that how schools are funded and their expenditure are all posted on the internet available to any member of the public.
Parents at City Hall also raised concerns about mayoral control.
Monica Harris, PTA president of an elementary school in District One where she has a 9-year-old daughter, said that mayoral control puts emphasis on quantity (in the growth statistics of schools) and less on the quality of education children are getting. Principals want to secure their jobs, so they are more likely to falsely rate children’s performance at the beginning of the year so that it seems there is great improvement at the end of the year, she said.
“Parent education is very important,” said Harris, who added that parents are not empowered to participate in their children’s education and form a “cohesive bond” with teachers.
Brian Jones, who has been a teacher in Harlem for six years, said that the states’ allocation of funding to create and remodel charter schools is an attempt to privatize education. He is a member of the Grassroots Education Movement (GEM), which seeks to “save our schools from privatization,” said a flier.
Ron Davis of the UFT denied the threat of privatization posed by charter schools by saying that charter schools are public schools that have specialized programs.
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