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Tomorrow we’ll know who has taken home the 2008 Broad Prize for Urban Education, awarded each year to the school district the Broad Foundation considers the nation’s “most improved.”

But chances are the award won’t put to rest questions about whether the foundation really picks the best districts. The official story is that a blue-ribbon panel consults not only school leaders but parents and teachers and reams of test score data. The panelists even said last year they do random school visits in the nominated districts.

But is the award given purely based on merit, or for “politics and PR,” as Leonie Haimson at NYC Public School Parents wonders? Every year the winning district has its detractors. And there are sometimes ties between the winning districts and the foundation that predate their awards. The city DOE received millions of Broad Foundation dollars well before it finally got its prize last year.

One thing we do know: the winning district had better have someone on hand to do some heavy lifting — the prize sitting across from Chancellor Klein’s desk weighs a ton.

If a small group of consultants gets its way, Chancellor Klein could make a move from Tweed to City Hall next year when term limits push Mayor Bloomberg out of office.

Joel Klein

A group of eight political consultants is exploring the prospects for a Klein mayoral bid, reports Elizabeth Green in today’s Sun. Although DOE spokesman David Cantor says the chancellor isn’t planning to run for mayor, Klein himself hasn’t told the group to count him out, Green reports, and the group members have concluded that he would have a good chance of winning should he enter the race, which so far has attracted only candidates that many consider uninspiring.

With Mayor Bloomberg’s interest in changing the law to allow himself a third term roundly criticized by even his own staffers, a Klein mayoralty could ensure the continuity of the last seven years of Children First school reforms as well as bring the DOE’s emphasis on accountability to other city agencies. (more…)

I noted this in a June post, but since the revised Contracts for Excellence continue to peg the Leadership Academy as a “district-wide,” discretionary allocation, it’s worth repeating: Mayor Bloomberg and Chancellor Klein have long planned to use Campaign for Fiscal Equity money to pay for the controversial principal training program.

Back in 2005, the program was embattled and its three-year term of private funding was coming to an end. The Times reported then:

Mr. Bloomberg had originally planned on sustaining the Leadership Academy using money from a court order mandating billions of additional dollars in state education aid for the city schools. But the state has appealed the ruling. Absent that money, Mr. Klein said yesterday that he would most likely turn again to private donors but was intent on continuing the effort, suggesting that, if necessary, the city would pick up part of the tab.

Now that the Campaign for Fiscal Equity money is finally beginning to roll into the city — 15 years after the lawsuit was filed — Klein appears to be making good on his word. But the state has complicated his plans by requiring the money to be spent on new initiatives that benefit low-performing students and high-need schools. Members of the public, along with elected officials, are right when they say this particular spending line violates the intent of the law, as PS 41 parent Irene Kaufman alleged at the Contracts for Excellence hearing in Manhattan on Wednesday night.

Not convinced? Take a more detailed look at the Leadership Academy and the DOE’s creative approaches to funding it.