Albany’s War on NYC Schools

Tasked with studying the effectiveness of mayoral control of New York City’s public-school system, the State Education Department delivered a 300-page report undermining it — and so leaving no one accountable for school-system failure.

SED’s $250,000 study also calls for a commission to find more ways to meddle.

The Legislature’s leaders are plainly bent on further reducing Mayor Adam’s control of the schools — because they’re in the pocket of the teachers unions, which strongly prefer a system prone to behindthe-scenes manipulation.

And the Legislature controls SED, which simply delivered the sniping at mayoral control its masters wanted. The report mainly cites input from “activist” parents who mainly parrot city United Federation of Teachers talking points.

When parents wanted the COVID lockdown to end and schools re-opened, the unions argued otherwise. When city parents rallied to retain Gifted & Talented programs and protect high-performing schools, the UFT and its pawns undermined them.

This is all just the sordid Albany game of rewarding special interests while spreading out the blame so voters can’t hold anyone accountable — in this case, to impose that same dark design on the city Department of Education. Taxpayers, parents and kids be damned.

Kudos to Assembly Education Chairman Michael Benedetto (D-Bx.), who says: “We should keep what we have and hold someone accountable and that would be the mayor.”

Every other state school system has settled governance; only New York City is subject to periodic micromismanagement from Albany.

This obscene, venal farce must end: Mayoral control should be made permanent. Let New York City run New York City schools.