Adams’ wings clipped on school control
State legislators are set to vote this Thursday on a plan to extend mayoral control over city schools for a shorter time frame than Mayor Adams requested, with some tweaks to an oversight panel that monitors the city Education Department.
A bill introduced Tuesday in the state Senate and Assembly would extend mayoral control over city schools for two years — just half of the four years that Adams and Gov. Hochul were pushing for. The legislation would also expand the Panel for Educational Policy — the Education Department’s oversight panel that approves budget and contract proposals — by eight members, four of whom would be appointed by the mayor and the other four by parent leaders.
The bill would also guarantee that appointees stay on the panel for at least a year in an effort to prevent appointing authorities from yanking their members from the panel if they step out of line.
“Allowing them fixed terms would allow them to approach their position with more impact,” said Sen. John Liu (D-Queens), the chairman of the Senate’s New York City Education Committee, who has been helping to lead the negotiations.
The bill caps months of negotiations on executive authority over the city’s school system, which is set to expire June 30 and was not extended during initial state budget negotiations. The state legislative term ends this week, and lawmakers have been scrambling to put together a proposal before then.
Hochul initially suggested extending mayoral control by four years in her executive budget, but state legislators rejected that proposal.
Adams has also pushed for a longer extension, arguing that he is uniquely qualified to steer the school system as a graduate of city public schools, the first Black mayor since the advent of mayoral control in 2002, and someone with direct experience with a learning disability.
Liu (photo) said the two-year time frame “simply was the consensus of legislators.”
The bills would also change the composition of the Panel for Educational Policy, a body that’s long been seen as a rubber stamp for the mayor’s agenda but has recently bucked the Education Department on several important policy votes.
The panel currently has 15 members, nine of whom are appointed by the mayor. Five members are appointed by the borough presidents, and one is elected by parent leaders. Under the new proposal, the panel would have 23 total members — 13 appointed by the mayor, five by the borough presidents and five elected by parent leaders.
While the mayor would retain the majority on the panel, Liu said the additional members would “greatly improve parental engagement.” He acknowledged that further enlarging the slate could slow deliberations, but said there’s “always a tradeoff between representation and efficiency.”
The mayoral control agreement comes alongside another bill introduced Tuesday that would require city schools to lower class sizes to between 20 and 25 students, depending on the grade, by 2027.
Class sizes have been steadily reduced during the pandemic as school enrollment drops, reaching a citywide average of 24.4 students this school year, according to Education Department data. But the United Federation of Teachers has pushed to curb class sizes even more aggressively, championing unsuccessful legislation in the City Council last year to force the Education Department to more dramatically reduce class sizes.
Teachers union President Michael Mulgrew praised both the mayoral control agreement and the class size bill, adding “the passage and enactment of this legislation — which prioritizes the city’s poorest schools, phases in over five years, and provides exemptions when necessary for overcrowded buildings — would be a landmark achievement for this city’s children by the political leadership of our city and state.”