GothamSchools — daily independent reporting on NYC public schools

The Republicans appear to have seized control of the State Senate today, in a dramatic Albany afternoon that could end up solidifying the mayor’s control of the public schools.

With Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith vowing to maintain mayoral control for the most part, the fiercest opponents of the law had pinned their hopes on a group of rogue Democratic senators. The idea was that these senators could force Smith, whose grasp of power in the Senate was quite thin, to revise his position. The opponents had already gathered at least three lawmakers to sponsor legislation they proposed.

But a Senate controlled by Republicans would offer a much less friendly reception. Mayor Bloomberg has generously supported many GOP campaigns, and Republican Senators are likely to take that to heart. When the mayoral control law was first written in 2002, the Republican Senate followed essentially in lockstep with Bloomberg’s wishes, letting him essentially negotiate on their behalf, Steve Sanders, an architect of the law and then the chairman of the Assembly’s education committee, told me this morning.

(UPDATE: City Hall News says the change could hurt mayoral control’s chances, by making it impossible for the legislature to come to an agreement by the June 30 sunset deadline.) (more…)