Adams ed. control push
Seeks extension in Albany, quizzed on ‘mayoral accountability’
Mayor Adams attempted to win over Albany lawmakers Tuesday as he mounted a final push for legislative priorities including the extension of mayoral control over public schools.
Adams’ trip to the state Capitol comes with less than two weeks left in the legislative session. While it appears the mayor may get an extension, time is tight and he may have to accept measures designed to increase parental say in how the schools are run.
The mayor’s team is “going to have to work for it,” a lawmaker who attended one of Adams’ Tuesday meetings told the Daily News.
Adams met one-on-one with some lawmakers, including Assemblyman Michael Benedetto (D-Bronx), the chairman of the chamber’s Education Committee.
He did not have any facetime with Gov. Hochul, Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins (D-Westchester) or Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie (D-Bronx) because the trio joined President Biden in Buffalo to honor the victims of Saturday’s racially motivated mass shooting.
Adams, a former state senator, said his team “took a lot of notes” during their meetings with lawmakers and heard some “great ideas around education,” as well as suggestions on the New York City Housing Authority and public safety. He noted, though, that “the bulk of our conversation was around mayoral accountability.”
“This is the process,” said Adams. “I served up here. I understand that these lawmakers want to hear from us. They want to hear from their constituents and, you know, this was a good exchange of ideas.”
He added that it’s now up to the lawmakers to “go back, and say, ‘Based on what we heard, this is what we want to do.’ “
Mayoral control of the city’s 1,859 schools is set to expire June 30. Hochul earlier this year backed a proposed fouryear extension, but lawmakers dropped the issue amid contentious budget negotiations in March.
Benedetto said his sitdown with the mayor went well and that he personally supports extending mayoral control, but added that Adams has his work cut out for him attempting to get lawmakers in both chambers on the same page before the end of session on June 2.
“We had a discussion about it last week where we bounced around ideas about it in the conference and they were quite varied to say the least,” Benedetto said of the Assembly’s stance. “Now we’re trying to put a composite together ... and possibly put out a proposal by next week.”
Others said the extension will likely be approved along with changes expanding parents’ input and overhauls to the city Education Department’s governing body.
Assemblyman Ron Kim (D-Queens) attended the mayor’s meeting with the Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic & Asian Legislative Caucus and said there’s consensus that mayoral control will likely be granted, but the question remains on how to get there. The group, he said, was evenly divided on the duration of control its members feel comfortable granting, with some, like himself, leaning toward two years, and others who support the four years that Hochul already floated.
“I think there’s consensus that we don’t have a choice,” he said regarding lawmakers’ decision on whether to grant mayoral control. “The only thing left is the time period.”
The lawmakers had asks of Adams on the issue as well, though. Kim said that some want to add three or more locally appointed members to the Panel for Educational Policy, a body to which Adams currently appoints nine of 15 members. That would serve to water down Adams’ control of the panel. Exactly how those additional members would be appointed was unclear.
Other ideas floated included requiring that a Parents Bill of Rights be drafted and distributed as a condition to granting mayoral control and decentralizing how the city handles gifted and talented schools, granting more control of such decisions to local leaders.
Adams is also pushing lawmakers to extend and expand speed and red-light cameras and wants to see a continuation of tax breaks for developers, known as the 421-a program. The controversial tax abatement is intended to incentivize developers to build affordable housing.
But when asked about his meetings Tuesday, Adams didn’t mention those topics, saying that the conversation focused mainly on mayoral control with a couple of forays into NYCHA and public safety.