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U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan confirmed today that he opposes fixed terms for school board members. “I think you have to serve at the mayor’s pleasure,” Duncan told me on the phone just now. “If you’re going to have mayoral control, you need to have mayoral control.”

The statement inserts President Obama’s top education official even deeper into New York City’s debate on school governance. Duncan first voiced his support for mayoral control in New York City to the New York Post editorial board in March. He argued that giving the mayor full control over urban public schools is the best way to turn them around.

Many education advocates here, including the teachers union, have pushed for fixed terms as a way to eliminate the mayor’s right to remove any school board member at his pleasure. But the issue is facing opposition from Bloomberg and, most recently, from Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, whose latest proposal has school board members serving at the pleasure of the mayor. (more…)

• About 2,600 low-paid school workers are set to be fired for budget reasons. (Daily News)
• The City Council is claiming credit for higher math scores in middle schools. (Daily News)
• A council member’s grandson was charged with stealing from a charter school board he chaired. (Post)
• A Stuyvesant HS librarian was charged with sexually abusing students. (Times, Post, Daily News, NY1)
• A Brooklyn middle school student with a heart defect died of swine flu. (Daily News)
• PS 15 in Queens has come together to support a family whose mother died in an accident. (Daily News)
• Schools that focus on data often have students whose performance improves. (Wall Street Journal)
• Arne Duncan vouched for charter schools and more class time at the 100 Black Men conference. (Post)
• The Christian Science Monitor says Duncan should study the SAT before pushing national standards.
• Two schools describe how they chose to use limited technology funds. (NPR)
• The Wall Street Journal praises Duncan’s demands that states add more charter schools.
• Glenn Beck looks at the city’s pay-for-grades program, and he doesn’t like what he sees. (Fox News)

The Citizens Union has backed away from a push to give fixed terms to members of the citywide school board, following lobbying from Mayor Bloomberg and President Obama’s secretary of education, Arne Duncan, according to sources familiar with the watchdog group’s stance.

Bloomberg has vigorously opposed fixed terms. He says he needs to be able to dismiss school board members at his pleasure in order to have real control over the public schools.

Members of the Citizens Union had previously voted to endorse fixed terms. But the position the Citizens Union, a nonprofit good-government group, will recommend tomorrow backs away from the fixed-terms power check. As a compromise, it would force the mayor to give 90 days’ notice before dismissing a board member, sources said.

Bloomberg reached out to the group after it briefed City Hall on the first proposal last week, urging board members to reconsider their stance. The group subsequently re-started its process of debating and voting on a position, sources said.

Duncan also weighed in during that period, writing a personal letter urging the group to preserve the mayor’s power over the schools, sources said. Duncan has previously said he supports mayoral control as a way to improve urban schools. (more…)

• Dan Brown says the country’s educational failures can’t all be blamed on bad teachers.
• Newsweek responds to criticism of its high school rankings.
• A Kentuckian says a failing high school that is being monitored by the state made the list.
• Duncan calls CA’s separation of teachers and testing data a “firewall.”
• The Chicago Trib writes that the Child Nutrition Act will probably get tougher under Obama.
• A counterpoint to Ravitch‘s NCLB take-down says she’s comparing the wrong data sets.
• A Stuyvesant high school librarian is accused of sexual misconduct and will be fired.
• Nothing will get you out of class faster than a note from the president.
• Study shows that more experienced teachers are able to focus on more students at once.
• “All Things Considered” looks at two schools that are trying to lower their tech spending.
• England is raising standards and putting more emphasis on test scores.
• An excessed teacher feels like a coward going along with the test score celebrations.
• Kindergartners write the strangest poetry.
• And a new personality appears on our “blog thingie” to represent the voiceless and the disposesd.

A testy back-and-forth between school officials and the office of Comptroller William Thompson offers a concrete example of what could change if some of the Department of Education’s critics get their way.

Throughout the school governance debate this spring, some have argued for a significant curb on the mayor’s power: to require the DOE to follow the same rules as other city agencies when it comes to budgeting, oversight by the comptroller and public advocate, and public notification about policy changes. That argument reappeared in correspondence from the comptroller’s office this week.

The exchange began last week when Thompson told the DOE that he would not approve a $150 million contract with a school supplies provider because the selected vendor charged more than many stores for the supplies. His critique of the contract and the process the department went through before entering into it was the focus of a Daily News column by Juan Gonzalez earlier this week.

Yesterday, the DOE responded to Thompson’s criticism, explaining in a public letter that the new contract would actually save the city money. In a rejoinder sent last night, Thompson’s office questioned why it took media attention before the department answered its questions about the contracting process. (more…)

Here’s a good barometer of the mood this morning among parent activists who were fighting mayoral control, via an e-mail I just got from one of them:

We parents feel like we’re being sucked down a vortex here.  Any chance you would consider calling assemblymembers and asking them point blank if they support fixed terms for the PEP?  A week ago that looked like it was in at least.  Please, please, please?

Silver’s plan, announced to lawmakers last night and leaked to the Times, does not include fixed terms for members of the citywide school board, known as the Panel for Educational Policy.

Another sign of growing frustration: Leonie Haimson, the executive director of Class Size Matters and a leader among the parent activists, has these frank remarks about teachers union president Randi Weingarten in a City Hall News interview this week:

CH: What do you make of UFT President Randi Weingarten’s change of heart about mayoral control?
LH: I find it very disappointing. I don’t think she’s looking out for the real interests of the teachers, who overwhelmingly in surveys have expressed their dissatisfaction with Joel Klein and the current system. They are as concerned as parents with overcrowding, excessive class sizes and the fact that our schools are being turned into test-prep factories. This is really diminishing their ability to do their job effectively, and they have expressed that in many ways, in many forums.

Other parents criticized Weingarten’s position on mayoral control last week.

Meanwhile, Billy Easton, a director of the Campaign for Better Schools, remains optimistic. “There is no bill yet; there is still time to fix some of the shortcomings,” Easton said in a statement e-mailed out just now. The statement says Silver’s plan fails to strengthen the citywide school board, the Panel for Educational Policy, and fails to add in enough parental involvement.

Brooklyn House of Detention (via Flickr)

The fight to turn a shuttered Brooklyn jail into a school isn’t over yet. The Brooklyn House of Detention is one of several projects the city could jettison in favor of increasing its school building budget by nearly half, according to a group of school construction advocates who are holding a press conference on the subject today.

The advocates, who include Comptroller William Thompson and City Council member David Yassky, are urging the city to redirect the funds it is planning to use for prisons and police training into building more schools. They will hold a press conference this morning at 1 Centre Street, the city’s main administrative building.

Critics of the city’s proposed 5-year school construction plan say it would barely make a dent in overcrowding and wouldn’t help schools reduce their class sizes. But by moving funds from other places in its capital budget, especially from its planned spending on new jails, the city could afford to double the number of new school seats it builds in the coming years, they say.

The press conference is meant to alert council members that they can push for changes as they debate whether to approve the city’s budgets, which must happen by the end of the month. ”We’re saying to council members that they have an opportunity to strike this jail plan from the budget,” said Jamie Evans-Butler, who runs a group that opposes the Brooklyn jail plan, Stop BHOD. (more…)

• Shelly Silver’s Assembly mayoral control plan barely curbs the mayor’s power. (Times, Post, Daily News)
• As budgets are slashed and enrollments fall, some schools are cutting entire departments. (Daily News)
• A state audit found that schools are selling junk food in violation of city policy. (Post, Daily News, NY1)
• A Bronx school made families buy uniforms twice, after the first were never delivered. (Riverdale Press)
• The Post praises Husly Rivera, the Brooklyn student with 14 years of perfect attendance.
• Kids at a Queens school are learning history by digging up a 10-year-old time capsule. (Daily News)
• A principal resignation sheds light on the process to replace school leaders. (Riverdale Press)
• Most states are seeing more students seeking free lunch. (USA Today)
• Hong Kong has closed all primary schools for two weeks because of 12 swine flu diagnoses. (AP)
• Arne Duncan pushed national standards and teacher quality to the Christian Science Monitor.
• Arnold Schwarzenegger wants to see his state move as much teaching material online as it can. (AP)
• As jobs disappear, enrollment in GED programs has gone up. (Christian Science Monitor)

• It looks like the Republicans do control the state Senate, at least for now.
• The UFT is offering teachers at closing schools job-interview advice.
• David Bloomfield urges the Regents to reject a draft policy on credit recovery.
• G&T applications are now available for fourth- and fifth-graders.
• NYC Educator says the new UFT TV ad betrays a lack of interest in teachers.
• Cleveland’s union agreed to use the stimulus to replace senior teachers with young ones.
• Kentucky wants to use the money to buy cafeteria equipment. (Via Smarick.)
• A study of 8th grade science finds the more you quiz, they more they learn.
• ED in 08 is handing off responsibilities to the Education Equality Project.
• The mayoral race in Boston is becoming an interesting education debate.
• Will Richardson says schools can be saved in the same way newspapers can.
• A school leader says the best professional development encourages dialogue.
• Study: Young white teachers’ turnover drops if a school has fewer minority teachers.
• A bunch of important people agreed math and science education need transforming.
• Mike Petrilli is taking bets on whether Arne Duncan will keep up his tough talk.
• And Dana Goldstein finds consensus among opponents on national standards.

The last few days have been a roller coaster for New York’s charter school advocates.

Gov. David Paterson proclaimed Monday “SUNY Charter Schools Day.” That afternoon, Education Secretary Arne Duncan announced he would favor charter-friendly states in doling out stimulus funds. And later that day, charter groups saw their biggest Democratic supporter, Sen. Malcolm Smith, lose control of the state senate to a Republican coup.

But advocates are focusing on the friendly words they’re hearing at the national level.

Smith “was a great advocate and still is,” said Peter Murphy, a charter school lobbyist. “But we have a number of supporters in the Senate from both sides of the aisle. He was never alone on the issue.”

Charter school supporters greeted Smith’s ascent to the state’s top leadership position with enthusiasm last year, but worried that Smith, the founder of two charter schools, would drop the issue when it became inconvenient.

Smith founded two charter schools and this year he engineered a relief fund to protect the schools from an unexpected budget.

James Merriman, CEO of the Center for Charter School Excellence, suggested that the power flip won’t affect support for charter schools. “This is an issue that has thankfully transcended narrow party politics,” he said, adding that charters have gained support “from the president on down” and do not need to rely on Smith for their bills’ survival. (more…)