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Senators agree to reinstate mayoral control before school starts

After several hours of heated discussions, Democratic state senators emerged from a meeting today declaring that they had reached an agreement with Mayor Bloomberg on mayoral control.

Standing outside of 250 Broadway, where a dozen of the city’s senators met and others listened in by phone, Democratic conference leader John Sampson said, “One thing you can say today is, we have an agreement with respect to school governance.”

Senators cautioned that the deal’s language has yet to be finalized on paper, but what they described mirrors an earlier agreement that fell apart last week. Today’s agreement would add extra checks to a mayoral control bill passed by the Assembly, including a parent training center based out of CUNY, an increased supervisory role for superintendents, and a new citywide arts panel. According to a statement released by Sen. Carl Kruger’s office, the deal also includes the creation of a Senate subcommittee to oversee the Department of Education.

“All’s well that ends well,” said outgoing UFT president Randi Weingarten, who said that she has been acting as a “go-between” for the two sides, spending Thursday night on the phone helping to broker today’s deal.

A spokeswoman for the mayor’s office, Dawn Walker, released a statement saying:

The agreement “preserves the accountability and authority necessary to ensure that the gains we’ve made — in math and reading scores, graduation rates and school safety — continue. At the same time, the agreement addresses concerns that have been raised by legislators in a way that makes sense.”

Sens. Sampson and Pedro Espada were vague about when they would return to Albany to pass the Assembly’s mayoral control bill. Espada said it would happen “before children start school in September.” But Walker’s statement sets the date as the first week of August.

When the senators do return, it’s expected that they will pass the Assembly’s mayoral control bill, as well as the chapter amendment they agreed to today. Weingarten said that when the Assembly returns for session, Assembly speaker Sheldon Silver would introduce the amendment.

As usual, not everyone is on board. Throughout the afternoon, senators sent conflicting messages as to whether they had actually reached a deal with the mayor. Sens. Hiram Monserrate and Ruben Diaz Sr. left the meeting, telling the waiting press that a deal would be reached either today or tomorrow.

“The four amigos are divided today,” Diaz said in Spanish to a group of reporters. “It’s a done deal, but we’re not all in agreement.”

“We’re not exactly home yet,” Monserrate said.

Minutes later, Sens. Espada and Sampson emerged to announce that an agreement had been reached.

Sen. Bill Perkins told the Daily News’ Liz Benjamin that the issue of police presence in schools had not been addressed to his satisfaction. “I’m looking for something stronger,” he told Benjamin, who says she will believe there’s a deal when it passes the Senate.

  • edu_scientist

    Finally. It was the right thing to do. ( Actually… it isn’t finalized yet.)
    Who ever runs the city SHOULD be held accountable for the schools.

    Any other way leads to the degradation of education to the levels left by the Board of Education.

    Anyone who disagrees wasn’t paying attention to the tragedy taking place in NYC schools during the 70 & 80s.

    ALL of our children benefit from being able to hold the Mayor ( whoever that is) accountable for our schools.

  • canwetalk

    TO: A spokeswoman for the mayor’s office, Dawn Walker, released a statement saying:

    The agreement “preserves the accountability and authority necessary to ensure that the gains we’ve made — in math and reading scores, graduation rates and school safety — continue. At the same time, the agreement addresses concerns that have been raised by legislators in a way that makes sense.”

    What gains?! Math and reading scores are based on all these monthly testing taking predicatives. So the gains are actually based on how well students do on taking a test – NOT on knowledge. Additionally, if the raw scores on a math regents continues to be lowered, then the mayor will definitely see gains! Think about 30 points out of 86 equals a 65! Wow! Just guess 15 multiple choice answers correctly and leave Part II, III and IV blank and a student earns a 65 and a credit. I’m assuming that next year’s regents exam will be 10 points out 86 – wow imagine the gains there!!!!
    Yes, Dawn Walker, let’s definitely continue to have these gains. Yes, let’s have graduation rate inflation. Yes, let’s keep watering down the exams. Yes, let’s have social promotions in an insidious way – just pass the students.
    When the students graduate, please make sure that they all work for any of Bloomberg’s companies. Or is the mayor’s criteria for hiring recent NYC graduates with minimumally skilled abilities for his companies set up to disqualify them? It is amazing how a billionaire can bring a city, especially the education system, to its knees. Congratulations Goliath has won!

  • edu_scientist

    Ok… once again… people talk about STATE Testing and think the Mayor has something to do with that. He HAS no bearing on STATE standards. Every time someone talks about REGENTS exams or state exams in general should be taking the fight to the state. Holding that against the Mayor is misplaced anger and judgement.

    The suburbs & L.I. are held to the same standard. The fact that we are actually starting to compete with the suburbs surrounding NYC may actually keep people from moving out of NYC so that their kids could get a good education.

    Are there things that need to be addressed in the DOE? Absolutely. But there is more input and transparency now than there has ever been. There was NEVER transparency or accountability under the ol’ BOE. Let’s get real people.

  • Pogue

    This mayor will never be held accountable as long as he is in office. Accountability is a fairy tale to the powerfully rich and corrupt. Vote him out of office. End THIS mayor’s control.

  • Smith

    Onward with test-prep and grade-faking!

  • endmayoralcontrol

    It is a shame that the city has allowed this to happen.

  • endmayoralcontrol

    It is a shame that the city has allowed this to happen. While scores have gone up, real knowledge has not. Anyone who has been around since the 70′s and 80′s knows that the kids today are no better off than they were then, in fact they are worse off. They are graduating with diplomas that mean nothing.

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  • Uncle Eddie G

    We don’t need mayoral control when the following has occurred: Chancellor Joel “Brilliance” Klein changed bus schedules during the 3 coldest days of the winter. You call that good management? I refer to it as stupidity. Where are the 600 schools for the unruly? Where are the lower class sizes? We need a committee of active and retired teachers and supervisors with parental input running our schools. These people have been or currently on the front lines and know what children and staff need to succeed. We don’t need mayoral control with a system that allows for a Principals’ Academy. You have people who never taught a day supervising over teachers and principals. This is absolutely inane and ridiculous. We need work-study programs for older, disruptive pupils. We need to form a coalition of tenants, educators and other union people to work for Mr. Thompson in November. Remember folks: If Bloomberg is reelected, we are guaranteed another 4 years of Chancellor Klein. Could the system really take that? Methinks not.

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